Macron told The Economist this week that NATO was experiencing \u201cbrain death\u201d, citing a lack of coordination and U.S. unpredictability under President Donald Trump. He also expressed doubt about the U.S.-led alliance\u2019s security maxim that an attack on one ally would be treated as an attack on all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be a mistake if we undermined NATO. Without the United States, neither Germany nor Europe will be able to effectively protect themselves,\u201d Maas wrote in a column published online by Der Spiegel magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maas supported Macron\u2019s call to strengthen Europe\u2019s defence capabilities. \u201cThat\u2019s why together with France, we are working hard to build a Europe that works much closer together in security policy,\u201d Maas wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he warned against playing the EU and NATO off against each other. \u201cYes, we want a strong and sovereign Europe, but we need it as part of a strong NATO and not as its replacement,\u201d Maas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maas called for the creation of a European Security Council in which Britain should also be a member, regardless of London\u2019s planned but delayed exit from the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maas said he was working closely on this idea together with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, adding that Germany is aiming to present a framework for such a European Security Council during its EU presidency in the second half of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France has traditionally had an ambivalent role in NATO, taking no part in its strategic military planning from 1966 to 2009 despite being a founding member. Still Macron\u2019s comments – a month before NATO\u2019s Dec 4 summit in London – were unexpected. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN, Nov 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against undermining the transatlantic NATO security alliance, in Berlin\u2019s strongest response to date to French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s critical remarks about the organisation. Macron told The Economist this week that NATO was experiencing \u201cbrain death\u201d, citing a lack of coordination and U.S. unpredictability under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49837"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}