France studies its 2009 return to NATO command

Paris, Jul 19: President Francois Hollande has tasked a former foreign minister with studying France's role in NATO's military command, along with the development of its transatlantic relations in the decade ahead.





While campaigning for the presidency, Hollande, a socialist, had said he wanted to rethink France's 2009 return to the Atlantic Alliance's integrated military command.

Under Hollande's conservative predecessor, President Nicolas Sarkozy, France had returned to NATO for the first time since its withdrawal under President Charles de Gaulle in 1966.

A statement from the presidential palace Wednesday said that Hollande had asked Hubert Vedrine, a fellow Socialist, to evaluate the issue and the development of transatlantic ties in the coming decade.

Hollande asked Vedrine to report back with his conclusions by the end of October.