Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization must step up their strategic cooperation and the new U.S. president may help strengthen this partnership, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today in a joint article.

“We must move toward a real cooperation,” the two European leaders said in the article published in both Paris- based Le Monde daily and Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. “We look forward to cooperating with” President Barack Obama and “we are convinced that the Euro-Atlantic security partnership will help us face all of the risks and threats to which we are exposed.”

A summit of NATO heads of government in Strasbourg, France, is scheduled for April to mark the 60th anniversary of the alliance. France will rejoin NATO’s military command, which it quit 43 years ago after President Charles De Gaulle asserted the nation’s military independence by pulling out of managing the European-U.S. alliance.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at Hfouquet1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 4, 2009 11:02 EST