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5. Sir D Gillmore, at Senator Nunn's request, set out the British position on the Franco-German proposals. He stressed that these were political in inspiration. They carried no military credibility. He thought that it would be important, at Rome and in the lead up to Maastricht to set forth some basic principles on which we could all agree so as to safeguard the future health of the Alliance. Senator Nunn said that the Americans were inhibited by the effects of the Bartholomew letter. Senator Nunn was then called away to vote. His assistant in his absence spoke of the need to strike a proper balance between tilting too far towards the French, in an effort to encourage them back into a collaborative frame of mind, and the desirability of the Administration not to be seen to be locked into old thinking. Sir D Gillmore emphasised that we wanted change, and for the Europeans to take up a greater share of the defence effort. The important point however was that such change should be properly managed and should have productive results. Senator Nunn returned at this point.
The meeting concluded at senator Nunn's request with a detalled exposition by Sir D Gillmore of the internal contradictions in the Franco-German proposals. We wanted to see a soundly-based European security and defence identity emerge from Rome and Maastricht, together with a re-thought set of doctrines for NATO's military structure and a framework for an effective relationship with the Central anu Past european scales,
29 October, 1991
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