Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday delivered a scathing parting shot to Robert Gates, the outgoing US defence secretary, accusing him of showing the "bitterness" of a future retiree.
Mr Sarkozy during the news conference after the summit of EU leaders in Brussels Photo: AFP
4:22PM BST 24 Jun 2011
The Telegraph
The French president's rebuke came two weeks after Mr Gates criticised European allies for the reliance on the US military, warning them that they were putting Nato's future at risk, as well as the mission in Libya.
"Mr Gates was heading towards retirement and it gave him please" to criticise Nato, Mr Sarkozy told a news conference following a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
"You can't blame someone who's retiring for showing bitterness," he said.
"His retirement caused him to not clearly see what was going on in Libya," he continued, adding "it was particularly inappropriate for Gates to say this. Plus, it was completely false."
Mr Gates, who retires next week, painted a bleak picture of the state of the transatlantic alliance during his last visit to Brussels, saying Nato risked a "dismal" future after years of shrinking budgets.
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"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country - yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the US, once more, to make up the difference," he said earlier this month.
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