In a speech this week in Prague, it is thought Bush will mention the growing integration of Europe, and point to its stability and the peace that has been present in Europe (excepting the Balkans) since the end of the Second World War.
What I note about the new members of NATO joining soon, is that they are all also joining the EU, most of them in 2004, and the rest in 2007. For some time now I have felt that the EU will not be a threat to NATO, as some have been saying, but NATO will form a major part of the European Common Foreign and Security Policy. The Rapid Reaction Force will simply be a NATO/EU army under a different name.
Needless to say I disagree with the remarks in the London Independent on the same subject. It stands to reason that Britain will not have to choose between EU Defence and NATO, but that increasingly the EU will be NATO. As a result of US unilateralism, NATO will likely become a European project rather than one dominated by the US.