Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe was withdrawing from the NATO military structure. SHAPE and all the other NATO installations, including NATO Headquarters and Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT), were informed that they must leave French territory by April 1967. Belgium became the host nation for both NATO's political headquarters and SHAPE. General Lyman Lemnitzer, SACEUR at the time, had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris, but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO's new location, because SHAPE was a major wartime military target. The Belgian
NORTHAG wartime structure in 1989 There were two additional French corps (III Corps, ) associated with the Army Group. In 1966, France had withdrawn from the NATO Command Structure, but still wished to take part in the defence of Western Europe. A series of secret agreements made between NATOs Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and the French Chief of the Defence Staff detailed how French forces would reintegrate into the NATO Command Structure in case of war. At the outbreak of hostilities the French First Army would be placed directly under the command of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), which would employ the three