September 4, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1424

PARIS, Sept 3: One of the principal subjects to be discussed on Sept 18 in Berlin at the first joint council of the ministers of France and Germany will be the decision to build a joint Franco-German submarine and the eventual merger of the countries’ respective defence industries.

“It’s an extraordinarily important issue,” said France’s newly-named secretary-general for Franco-German cooperation Noelle Lenoir, who is also the French state secretary for European affairs, who said that German defence minister Peter Struck had himself expressed Germany’s support for such a joint project last week.