The recent debate at NATO over the importance of cyber security and military interoperability within the EU a fault line has emerged. The conflict in the alliance is one of prioritisation, one where France has emerged a strong voice of pragmatism. With military security concerns being paramount.
In the debate the early education of children has come out as a cudgel used by some to bully France for it's stance. An anonymous diplomat has commented that "France does not believe in children's access to cyberspace education." This has been substantiated by the Hungarian representative who condemns France's posture as one of preserving "western cyber dominance", and not recognising the importance of central and eastern European Member States.
In response the Representative of France feels these comments are "not correct" and that the discussion of cyber education for children does "not fall within the scope of NATO's capacity or interests" and that the alliance is "not there to talk about the cyber hygiene of Kindergartens."
France's stance is clear, it wishes to "support it's European partners and the UK" in the suring up of the eastern border and finds strategic autonomy of Europe as an imperative. This is the pragmatic hard power political stance that France as been pushing for. Ending the interview on this note that "We are in this mess due to over eagerness of the US in courting Ukraine into the alliance. "
- Oliver Clozoff , France24 NATO correspondent
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