[D66] Pentagon threatens Europe over EU army plans

[A.OUT]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/16/useu-m16.html

Pentagon threatens Europe over EU army plans
By Alex Lantier
16 May 2019

On May 1, the US Department of Defense sent a letter to the European
Union warning that plans for an independent EU army could lead to a
collapse in the NATO alliance between the United States and the EU
powers. The letter, sent by the US undersecretaries for defense Ellen
Lord and Andrea Thompson to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini,
was leaked to the Spanish daily El Pais.

El Pais reported on it on May 13, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
arrived uninvited at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels to
demand EU support for US war moves against Iran.

“The United States is deeply concerned by the approval of rules for the
European Defense Fund and the general conditions of PESCO,” the letter
states, referring to the EU army’s technical name, the Permanent
Structured Cooperation. The EU army, the letter added, is leading to “a
dramatic step back in three decades of growing integration of the
trans-Atlantic defense industry.” It warned of the danger of
“unnecessary competition between NATO and the EU.”

The “very harsh” letter, El Pais reported, “is full of more or less
veiled threats of possible political or commercial retaliation if
Brussels maintains its intentions to develop European weapons projects
without consulting with outside countries, like the United States.”

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