PARIS  Europe should take the opportunity of a new Afghan administration to coordinate its policies on Afghanistan and not wait for Washington to make all the decisions, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said on Wednesday.

“We need to speak as Europe to the Americans” on Afghanistan, he said, and end the differences in policy and military rules on the ground, where the Germans fight only if fired upon and each member of NATO has different rules of engagement. “In Europe we are acting and fighting and going to war, but we are not talking to one another, and it’s shameful,” he said.

“We have to be together and improve the command structure,” he said. Asked if the NATO alliance was not working very well in Afghanistan, he said: “It’s not working at all.”

“What is the goal? What is the road? And in the name of what?” Mr. Kouchner asked. He said he appreciated President Obama’s deliberations on a new Afghan strategy, but asked: “Where are the Americans? It begins to be a problem.” He added: “We need to talk to one another as allies.”