The 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl Summit was a NATO summit of heads of state and heads of government held in Strasbourg, France, and in Kehl and Baden-Baden, Germany, on 3–4 April 2009. The summit marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Primarily a celebratory 60th-anniversary event, the agenda included a number of urgent topics commanding the NATO leaders' attention.
Summit participants
Hosts
To symbolize an evolving vision of European cooperation, for the first time a NATO summit was jointly hosted by two member nations: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The formal meetings were chaired by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. This was the last summit for de Hoop Scheffer, whose 61st birthday, coincidentally, came just one day before this 60th-anniversary summit.
Although the first of the significant summit events in Germany was held in Baden-Baden, the town was left off the official logo. This led to protests from local politicians; but the result was a comparatively calm beginning to a summit which also provided the opportunity for dramatic protests on the second day.
In attendance
Summit agenda
Details of the agenda were withheld until the last minute.<ref>Scheffer, Jaap de Hoop. [http://www.defpro.com/news/details/6294/ "The Future of Nato.] 23 March 2009.</ref>
United States President Barack Obama posed a unique quandary as Europeans asked themselves how best to respond to an ally who is sending all the signals they had desired.
On Friday, 3 April 2009, the summit's first official event was a working dinner at the Kurhaus, Baden-Baden.
The first event on Saturday, 4 April 2009, focused on Chancellor Merkel's welcome to the NATO leaders as they arrived individually in Kehl, Germany. Then, having gathered on the German side of the Rhine River, the NATO Leaders walked together across the Passerelle pedestrian bridge to Strasbourg, France. The NATO leaders were greeted at the French border by President Sarkozy. Meetings were held at the Palais de la musique et des congrès with an arrival ceremony at the Palais Rohan, Strasbourg.
On the French side of the Rhine, the 28 national leaders posed for the NATO "family portrait", a tradition at NATO summits. Then the main work began with a working lunch and at other meetings in Strasbourg.
In addition, several heads of state, government leaders and other principals were involved in non–summit events which encompassed individual and/or bilateral events on the margins of the formal summit agenda.
Issues
After 60 years, NATO found itself on the cusp of a watershed period in the organization's history; and top items on the agenda included:
Afghanistan war
Some have argued that the most critical issue NATO faces in 2009 arises from Afghanistan. Any NATO discussion about Afghanistan involves developing a comprehensive strategy which brings non-NATO regional powers into a discussion about how best to proceed in short- and longer-term time frames. Although the newly elected Obama continued to enjoy a reservoir of good will, experts anticipated only token gestures of support for any plan which involves increased levels of European troops. In the end, the allies managed to find more reasons for consensus than had been expected, and the increases in the various commitments from the Europeans was a little greater than had been anticipated.
Relations with Russia
Russia's relationships with the West are a perennial NATO concern. Obama summarized his view of the dialogue with Russia about maintaining stability while protecting the autonomy of all countries in Europe: "I think that it is important for NATO allies to engage Russia and to recognize that they have legitimate interests in some cases, we've got common interests, but we also have some core disagreements."
France's reintegration
France's decision to seek reintegration with the NATO military hierarchy caused all the allies to evaluate the potential ramifications. In 1966, then-President Charles de Gaulle caused France to withdraw from the U.S.-led military command. Sarkozy determined that the time was ripe to change course radically, and the French Parliament backed this decision with a vote of confidence.