Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Sarkozy on defense policy

France will rejoin NATO's integrated command, which it left in 1966, Pres. Sarkozy said in a speech following release of a white paper on defense strategy. The paper calls for some 50,000 defense jobs to be cut and 50 facilities to be closed, while increases in spending are proposed for intelligence items such as drones and satellites. The white paper says that from 2009 to 2020 French defense spending will be 377 billion euros or 584 billion dollars, i.e., roughly the size of the U.S. military budget for one year.

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