Mitterrand, Kohl Sign Defense Council Accord

President Francois Mitterrand of France and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, insisting they were not out of step with the rest of Western Europe, signed an agreement Friday setting up a joint defense council to oversee the first combined French and German army brigade in history.

The agreement was signed as part of an elaborate ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the treaty of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, bitter enemies in three wars in little less than eight decades: the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, World War I and World War II.

Now, the former enemies are creating a joint military council and brigade, and Mitterrand asked rhetorically: “What two other nations, torn by three wars, have done more, have done better, than France and West Germany in forging a community of joint destiny?”

Plans for the brigade, which will take form next October, had been announced previously, but the signing of a protocol creating the joint defense council set the new military unit firmly in international law.

West European Suspicions

Some West European nations have been suspicious of the brigade, fearing that it might somehow weaken West Germany’s strong ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. France, although a member of the political councils of NATO, refuses to put any of its military units under NATO military command.

Both Kohl and Mitterrand insisted that their intent is to strengthen West European defense, not weaken it.

“There is no French-German axis,” Mitterrand said. “The aim of French-German cooperation is to advance Europe.”

French officials, who believe strongly that European defense must depend on nuclear deterrence, have been upset recently by hints that West German officials have been tempted by Soviet proposals to eliminate short-range nuclear weapons in Europe. The French concern prompted a rebuke this week from Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who warned France against becoming a “dissonant voice” on arms control.

The issue was not raised specifically in any of the public comments here Friday, but Chancellor Kohl, speaking at a reception in the presidential palace, tried to reassure the French that the Germans are not going to rush into the acceptance of Soviet offers for emotional reasons.

He noted that the latest signed agreement provided for “close consultation on all questions concerning the security of Europe, including control of armaments and disarmament.”

“We French and Germans,” he went on, “want to achieve progress in issues of disarmament and controls of armament but not at the price of our security. The aim of our policy is and will remain the prevention of all war in Europe, nuclear as well as conventional.”

Under the agreement, the joint defense council, which will meet at least twice a year, would try to work out French-German policies on defense and disarmament and oversee the new brigade.

The governments announced that the brigade will be headquartered in Germany, at the town of Boeblingen near Stuttgart. It will be commanded by Brig. Gen. Jean Sengeisen of the French army, with Col. Gunther Wassenberg of the German army as deputy commander. In two years, the command is to be assumed by a German general.

The mission of the mechanized brigade, which will have between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers, neatly sidesteps the problem of putting French units under NATO command. In case of war, the brigade would have the job of defending areas well behind the front-line NATO troops.

German Territorial Army

That mission has been assigned to the German Territorial Army, which is made up of regulars and reservists somewhat like the U.S. National Guard and is not directly under NATO command. The new joint brigade will consist of two battalions of the German Territorial Army and two battalions of the French 1st Army and, like the Territorial Army, will would not be under NATO command.

The day lent itself to some hyperbole. Speaking on French television, West German Minister of Defense Manfred Woerner said he could see the day when the brigade expands into something far different.

“I see the possibility that one day we will have a common army,” he said. “But that’s a long way off. It’s the first step that counts.”