France’s role in NATO not in question despite US rift

By LORNE COOK
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — A French general handed the baton of a key NATO command center to a fellow French air force officer this week as tensions between France and the United States simmered over a defense deal that sank a multi-billion-dollar French submarine contract. The ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia cemented France’s place at the head of NATO’s only headquarters in North America and where NATO does its strategic thinking. It was a clear sign that France remains firmly anchored in the world’s biggest security alliance even amid the kerfuffle over the defense pact between the U.S., Britain and Australia and fresh calls for Europe to end its U.S. military dependence.