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Article: Franco-German relations under strain.
- Article from:
- Interavia Business & Technology
- Article date:
- August 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Aerospace Media Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Joint recce satellite funding dropped, other projects in jeopardy
Franco-German relations have turned sour following the revision of France's armed forces planning. Defence minister Volker Ruhe feels he was not properly consulted, and faced a fait accompli instead. The decisions that upset Ruhe include the withdrawal of all but 3,000 of the 20,000 French troops based in Germany and the new equipment planning that jeopardises joint projects like the NH90 and Tiger helicopters.
Plagued by budget cuts of his own, Ruhe bluntly said he saw no way of financing the prestigious reconnaissance satellite programmes that Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Jacques Chirac ...