N.A.T.O. Council To Meet

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 13

N.A.T.O. Council To Meet

(N Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) BRUSSELS, June 6. France’s 14 allies will meet today to put final touches to their joint stand in the most crucial meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ministerial council in the alliance’s 17-year history'.

They confer on how to preserve the alliance now that President de Gaulle has decided to withdraw France from its integrated military structure.

Tomorrow they will face Mr Couve de Murville, the French Foreign Minister, when the full N.A.T.O. Council, the alliance’s top political body, will open its two-day meeting. The N.A.T.O. Council must find an answer to the military, political and economic consequences of France’s decision. The 14 ministers meeting today under Dr. Joseph Luns, of Holland, have before them proposals from Norway on now to deal with three major practical problems.

One key issue is the future military role and status of France’s 70,000-strong Army and air forces in Western Germany. These will be withdrawn from N.A.T.O. command on July 1, but President de Gaulle is prepared to keep them on German soil under French national command. The second major problem is the future location of N.A.T.O. military headquarters now in France, and

the third is whether the N.A.T.O. Council should also transfer its headquarters from Paris.