France to rejoin Nato after 43 years self-exile

France's semi-detached relationship with Nato is to die the death of other, once-cherished "French exceptions", from yellow headlights to yellow cigarettes.

After months of hints, promises and background negotiations, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced yesterday that Paris hopes to re-join the integrated military command of the Atlantic alliance next year - ending a 43-year self-imposed diplomatic stand-off with Washington.

"The time has come for France to stop excluding itself [from Nato]," M. Sarkozy told a high-level defence conference in Paris.

To continue the existing policy, he said, would amount to a "21st-century Maginot line", ignoring the "real threats to the freedom and independence of France and Europe in the modern world."

President Charles de Gaulle's decision in 1966 to walk out of the unified, Nato military command - while remaining a member of the alliance - was a defining moment in French post-war history.

The decision established a French tradition of diplomatic and military independence from Washington which continued to the Iraq invasion of March 2003.

M. Sarkozy's much anticipated decision, which puts some French forces under the orders of the alliance's American supreme commander, has angered French politicians of both left and right. Although they accept political circumstances have changed, they fear unqualified membership of Nato will destroy France's influence as an independent voice in global affairs.

M. Sarkozy yesterday said the opposite is the case. France's "incapacity to acknowledge openly our position in the Alliance throws suspicion on our intentions ... Rapprochement with Nato will strengthen our national independence. Our proclaimed, but incomplete, distancing of ourselves from Nato damages our independence."

M. Sarkozy insisted, however, that France's nuclear deterrent, and the deployment of troops overseas, will remain under national control.

He said there has been a growing post-Cold War gap between French rhetoric about Nato and reality.

France has already re-claimed a seat on the Nato military committee. It is one of the five largest contributors to Nato military operations, and the fourth largest contributor to the Nato operational budget. Operationally, therefore, the President's decision may not change much. Symbolically, it is another step in M. Sarkozy's crusade to confront national myths and slaughter French political holy cows.

There are conflicting opinions on what the move will mean for long-standing efforts by French governments to promote a European Union defence policy.

M. Sarkozy argued yesterday that it will be easier for such a policy to succeed, once Paris is no longer suspected of trying to undermine Nato. Others say the French decision amounts to an admission that EU defence policy is going nowhere.

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