By Daniel Dombey and Bertrand Benoit in Brussels and Guy Dinmore in Washington
Jacques Chirac bowed out of what might be his last European Union summit by warning that US plans to install missile defence bases in Europe could split the continent and provoke a fresh cold war.
The French president said Europe and the US needed to consider Russia’s concerns about the projected missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“We should be very careful about encouraging the creation of a new dividing line in Europe or a return of the order of the past,” he said.
His comments marked the first French intervention in the debate since the US formally requested the use of Polish and Czech bases this year. They were also the latest indication of deep concern among western European Nato governments that the plans will hurt ties with Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has said siting the bases in the former Warsaw Pact states would break 1990s-era understandings with the US and lead to an “inevitable arms race”.
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