France needs to get rid of its strategic dependence on the United States and withdraw from the joint command of NATO. This was announced by Pierre de Gaulle, grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle and deputy chairman of the jury of the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize, on September 14.
According to him, the country should regain its independence by withdrawing from the military structures of the alliance. De Gaulle noted that it is not too late for this step.
“On the contrary,” he stated, “the moment has come for France to regain legitimacy in the eyes of its own people.”
In 1966, Charles de Gaulle formalized the process of France’s withdrawal from the military structures of the North Atlantic Alliance. This included withdrawing French troops from the alliance’s command and relocating NATO headquarters from Paris. However, France fully reentered these structures in 2009 during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
