NATO shuns European Union meetings… under the Cypriot presidency?

(BRUSSELS2) Invited to the meeting of political directors of Defense in Nicosia this week, NATO did not attend. To tell the truth, she didn't say she wouldn't come; she simply observed total silence. Probably an address error...

However... A NATO official is always present at the working meetings of the European Union. This is, moreover, a practical way that the leaders of the two organizations (AF Rasmussen and C. Ashton) have found to strengthen the links between the two organisations. At the last meetings, it was the Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Hüseyin Diriöz (of Turkish nationality), who came.

Is it because the meeting was taking place under the Cypriot presidency and in Nicosia that the Atlantic Alliance did not want to respond to the invitation? There's a big chance. Turkey had announced that it would boycott EU meetings during the Cypriot presidency. This boycott now seems to extend to relations between the two organisations. It's not a very good sign, nor a very serious one...