(NSI News Source Info) PARIS - February 6, 2009: France is in talks on taking 
control of two NATO command posts, including a prestigious one in the United States that has never been led by a foreign commander, defense officials said Thursday.
Such a move could also be accompanied by the injection of hundreds more French troops into NATO, a European defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal had been finalized.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has been looking to tighten France's links with NATO, particularly ahead of the defense alliance's April summit meeting in Strasbourg and Kehl, Germany, that will celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The European official and a French military official said France was in talks to put a French general in charge of two command posts: one in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for laying out the long-term vision of the Atlantic alliance, and the other an operational command based in Lisbon.
The French official also spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are still under way.
The Norfolk command, known as the Allied Command Transformation, is particularly prestigious. It is responsible for helping lay out the alliance's doctrine and for training and preparing for future scenarios, among other duties.
News reports in France on Thursday said Sarkozy had won U.S. approval for the proposal for French generals to run the posts. The European official said France could accompany control of the Norfolk post with devoting up to another 800 troops to the NATO umbrella.
President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966 as he sought to reassert France's independence after the grueling post-World War II years. The decision has hurt trans-Atlantic ties for decades, and France remains outside the alliance's nuclear group and 
its planning committee. Sarkozy contends that new threats like terrorism are moving the alliance farther away from its original Cold War mind-set, and that it is in France's interest to move toward greater international cooperation.
control of two NATO command posts, including a prestigious one in the United States that has never been led by a foreign commander, defense officials said Thursday.
Such a move could also be accompanied by the injection of hundreds more French troops into NATO, a European defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal had been finalized.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has been looking to tighten France's links with NATO, particularly ahead of the defense alliance's April summit meeting in Strasbourg and Kehl, Germany, that will celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The European official and a French military official said France was in talks to put a French general in charge of two command posts: one in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for laying out the long-term vision of the Atlantic alliance, and the other an operational command based in Lisbon.
The French official also spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are still under way.
The Norfolk command, known as the Allied Command Transformation, is particularly prestigious. It is responsible for helping lay out the alliance's doctrine and for training and preparing for future scenarios, among other duties.
News reports in France on Thursday said Sarkozy had won U.S. approval for the proposal for French generals to run the posts. The European official said France could accompany control of the Norfolk post with devoting up to another 800 troops to the NATO umbrella.
President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966 as he sought to reassert France's independence after the grueling post-World War II years. The decision has hurt trans-Atlantic ties for decades, and France remains outside the alliance's nuclear group and 
its planning committee. Sarkozy contends that new threats like terrorism are moving the alliance farther away from its original Cold War mind-set, and that it is in France's interest to move toward greater international cooperation. But he has had to fend off political opposition at home from those who fear he would give up too much of France's freedom of decision-making on military matters.
France is deeply involved in nearly all NATO operations.
But its absence from the integrated military command exposes a lack of unity in the alliance. France has tried in the past - and failed - to increase its ties to NATO, including an effort in the mid-1990s by President Jacques Chirac for France to run an operational command of the alliance in Naples.
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