Trump and NATO: 'Obsolete' Organization Could Yield to 'European Defense System'

In an interview with Sputnik France, Christophe Reveillard of the France-based National Center for Scientific Research described French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve's recent call for the creation of an independent European defense system an open recognition of the need to form a European army which would not depend on NATO.

Earlier this week, Cazeneuve urged the establishment of a European defense system to guarantee Europe's independence in the light of US President-elect Donald Trump's criticism of NATO.

On Monday, in an interview with The Times, Trump called NATO an "obsolete" organization, since it doesn't play much of a role in countering terrorism, while its member countries' contributions are not efficient.

Cazeneuve, for his part, said that "European defense with European means, European investments, and European power projection capacity is necessary to provide the European Union… with independence."

Commenting on this, Reveillard said that "it's funny but it all sounds like an [open] recognition, given that previous years have seen just low-key demands for the creation of an independent [European] army," which he said should be free from "America's NATO."

He added that like diplomacy, defense cannot be the result of a merger of various existing geopolitics and that the merger of nations and a federal state are needed for the creation of a real defense system.   

Reveillard called for the hammering out of "a new federal and federalist vision of European defense," a task which he said cannot be implemented at the moment.

He was echoed by Francois Lafond of the Paris-based Institute of Political Studies, who described the creation of a full-fledged European army wishful thinking.

"We need to create, for example, battalions or to unite the units of national armies, capable of jointly taking part in an external theater of hostilities if necessary," he told Sputnik France.

For his part, Socialist MP Jerome Lambert said in an interview with Sputnik France that one cannot pursue a foreign policy without a policy to protect strategic, economic and other interests.

"So we are clearly talking about the emergence of European federalism, something that will take plenty of time," he said.

Meanwhile, German politician and Bundestag MP Wolfgang Gehrke supported Trump's stance on NATO, saying that the alliance failed to ensure security worldwide and, on the contrary, contributed to greater instability.

"Of course, NATO is outdated. It has not achieved any constructive results. It has aggravated crises. Their war against terror has fostered terror. We are in favor of dissolving NATO and replacing it with a European security system," the politician told Sputnik Germany.

Gehrke also said that "it would be nice to have an American president who understands that the United States and Russia should jointly take responsibility for what is happening in the world."

The politician also criticized the deployment of additional NATO forces and military equipment to Central and Eastern European nations as well as their transfer through German territory.