They spent more than an hour together at the Elysee, and the conversation was nurtured. Has it made it easier to understand each other? Surely, but not on all subjects. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was in Paris on Thursday (November 28th) to meet Emmanuel Macron in preparation for the London mini-summit on December 3rd and 4th. A first explanation since the presidential statements on the " brain death " of the Alliance, which surprised and provoked strong reactions in European capitals.
The French president assumes all his words, as he said at the end of the meeting. The alert was given, he said, "And I am pleased that everyone now feels that the priority is to think about our strategic goals". It remains to find a method, perhaps the high-level working group suggested by Germany under the guidance of the General Secretariat. "We act in NATO on the basis of political analyzes, we do this every day", tempered the Secretary General in an interview with the World. "We have succeeded, since since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, we have arrived at the most important reinforcement of NATO for decades. "
What was judged to be a useless provocation nevertheless had a positive effect, it is said informally to the general secretariat. "The French President has opened a strategic conversation, and she will start in London". Since 2014, security files have been processed, one after the other – military command, cyber, hybrid threats, space defense, and so on. "Allies agree to continue modernizing the Atlantic Alliance. How to do it, we will continue the discussion »says Stoltenberg.
"Attachment to collective security"
NATO Allies "Can count on France"reassured Emmanuel Macron. But what to do with Turkey? What is the common enemy? According to him, the priority of NATO is " terrorism ". And there, he says, "To proclaim one's commitment to collective security is not enough. A true alliance, they are acts, not words ". The host of the Elysee demands, in London, a discussion on engagement in the Sahel and the Levant. What the allies, especially Germans very angry against Paris, answer in substance: "France says she is alone while considering the Sahel as her preserve and she has never made a proposal for NATO involvement".
