France, Britain sign nuclear deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - France and Britain signed treaties outlining unprecedented military cooperation, including a joint rapid-deployment force and shared laboratories for maintaining and testing nuclear warheads.

The pacts, announced at a summit conference in London between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, represents a new effort by Europe's two nuclear nations to set aside long-standing differences and pool resources to ensure that the need for drastic budget cutting does not jeopardize their standing in the military big leagues.

"This is a decision that is unprecedented and shows a level of trust and confidence between our two nations that is unequaled in history," Sarkozy said at a closing news conference.

Officials in Paris and London emphasized that the accords, which are scheduled to take effect immediately, will not require either nation to sacrifice its sovereignty. In particular, they said, Sarkozy and Cameron will still have sole say over deployment of their countries' nuclear weapons.

"Britain and France are, and will always remain, sovereign nations able to deploy our armed forces independently and in our national interest when we choose to do so," Cameron said.

The implication was that despite the costs entailed, the British and French navies, at least at this stage, would each continue independent patrols by submarines equipped with nuclear missiles, the main tool in their nuclear dissuasion strategies, military specialists said.

France and Britain also agreed to train their helicopter and transport plane pilots together to save money and to make sure refueling tankers can link up with warplanes from either air force, The Washington Post reported.