2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit

Strasbourg–Kehl summit
Strasbourg–Kehl summit logo
Host countries	France Germany
Dates	3–4 April 2009
Venue(s)	(Strasbourg, France), Kurhaus of Baden-Baden and Kehl, Germany.
Website	Official Website

The 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl Summit was a NATO summit of heads of state and heads of government held in Strasbourg, France, and in Kehl and Baden-Baden, Germany, on 3–4 April 2009. The summit marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Expected to be primarily a celebratory 60th-anniversary event, the agenda included a number of urgent topics commanding the NATO leaders' attention.

To symbolize an evolving vision of European cooperation, for the first time a NATO summit was jointly hosted by two member nations: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The formal meetings were chaired by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. This was the last summit for de Hoop Scheffer, whose 61st birthday, coincidentally, came just one day before this 60th-anniversary summit.

Although the first of the significant summit events in Germany was held in Baden-Baden, the town was left off the official logo. This led to protests from local politicians; but the result was a comparatively calm beginning to a summit which also provided the opportunity for dramatic protests on the second day.

Details of the agenda were withheld until the last minute.

United States President Barack Obama posed a unique quandary as Europeans asked themselves how best to respond to an ally who is sending all the signals they had desired.

On Friday, 3 April 2009, the summit's first official event was a working dinner at the Kurhaus, Baden-Baden.

The first event on Saturday, 4 April 2009, focused on Chancellor Merkel's welcome to the NATO leaders as they arrived individually in Kehl, Germany. Then, having gathered on the German side of the Rhine River, the NATO Leaders walked together across the Passerelle pedestrian bridge to Strasbourg, France. The NATO leaders were greeted at the French border by President Sarkozy. Meetings were held at the Palais de la musique et des congrès with an arrival ceremony at the Palais Rohan, Strasbourg.