- BERLIN (AFP) - Senior US
defence adviser Richard Perle urged Germany Tuesday to stop following France
on the international political stage and said that the Franco-German relationship
is harming ties with the United States.
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- "The idea that Germany must submit to French ideas
has to be looked at," Perle told about 200 defence experts gathered
in Berlin for a two-day security conference.
-
- Perle said the depth of the Franco-German partnership
was, at times, further damaging the European Union's already strained relations
with Washington.
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- "There is such a strong tendency for France and
Germany on every occasion to express solidarity, I think in the mistaken
belief that somehow that is what is essential to peace in Europe..., that
it can obscure the really very difficult issue of Europe and the Atlantic,"
he said.
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- In a heated exchange, former French chief of staff, Admiral
Jacques Lanxade, accused Perle of trying to divide Paris and Berlin and
blamed the Pentagon adviser for inciting public ill-feeling in Europe towards
Washington.
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