PARIS: According to President Chirac’s diplomatic advisers at the Elysee Palace, the days are finished when Socialist Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine could refer to US foreign policy as “simplistic,” indeed openly poke fun at President George W Bush’s “Axis of Evil.”
In a major turnabout, France has decided to profit from Mr Bush’s official visit to Paris on Sunday to make it clear that contrary to the French government of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, France, under Mr Chirac, who has been re-elected to a five-year term, will now stress the maintaining of strong ties between Paris and Washington, with France notably playing an important role in Mr Bush’s anti-terrorism campaign.
Already, Washington had sent an “evaluation” to Paris in late April which expanded Mr Bush’s “Axis of Evil” list of countries from three to seven (it now includes, according to a French Foreign Ministry memo, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Cuba and the Sudan.)
Mr Chirac’s diplomatic advisers say the French President has decided to “send a strong and clear signal to Washington” according to which France, albeit under a Gaullist head of state, has the firm intention of playing along with the United States, because, say the advisers, “we are conscious that there is little we can do in the world against the wishes of the United States, or without their support.”
Therefore, Mr Chirac has decided to send a signal to Washington according to which the subjects of agreement between the two countries will henceforth be accorded more importance than the subjects of discord. So, under a Chirac presidency, France, in the words of the advisers, has chosen to become a loyal ally of the United States, indeed Mr Chirac plans to remind Mr Bush tomorrow that France is the United States’ oldest ally, having been the first nation in the world, in 1778, to officially recognise the existence of the newly-born country, then composed of 13 states.
Quite symbolically, on Monday, Mr Chirac will personally accompany President Bush to Omaha Beach, where he will celebrate the 58th anniversary of the US-led Allied landing in Normandy, which in fact took place on June 6, 1944. Beforehand, though, the two men have agreed on a three-hour series of discussions at the Elysee Palace, which could very well be extended, says a diplomatic counsellor to the French President.
The principal subject of discussion will undoubtedly be the post-September 11th world, and notably France’s place in eradicating international terrorism, something that Mr Chirac feels his country did not do very well under Mr Jospin.
Still, the French president is expected to tell Mr Bush that although France fully intends stepping up its cooperation with Washington in the sphere of anti-terrorism, it would like for the United Nations to play a more important role in the matter. Not only as a matter of principle, but also for reasons of effectiveness, because in Mr Chirac’s estimation, terrorism can be better contained if the battle could be increasingly coordinated by the UN.
Mr Chirac also plans to offer Mr Bush greater cooperation from France’s secret services, notably the French DGSE (Direction generale de la Securite Exterieure, the French CIA), as well as customs, law enforcement, diplomacy, armed services, navy, and this when possible on a Europe-wide level, as France also plans to play an increasingly important role within the European Union.
This was ostensibly the intention of signals sent to Berlin last week by newly-appointed Foreign Minister (and former Chirac chief of staff) Dominique de Villepin. Indeed, the two principal axes of French foreign policy for the new five-year presidential term of Mr Chirac will be a greater involvement in Europe, and warmer relations with the United States.
With regard to the Middle East, Mr Chirac, say his advisers, has decided to support Mr Bush’s proposed international peace conference, with the French President looking foward to learning the details of the summit. Iraq is one of the few areas where Mr Chirac has decided to continue to disagree with Mr Bush.
The French President will tell Mr Bush what he has already told him on a number of occasions — most recently in Mexico — that he too wants for the UN’s inspectors to be able to return to their inspection work in Iraq, but as for Washington’s “idee fixe” that President Saddam Hussein be overthrown and replaced by somebody more to Mr Bush’s liking, Mr Chirac is expected to let it be known firmly that the idea is not a good one, especially if Paris gets its way and persuades Mr Hussein — historically a close ally of the French — to allow the return of the UN inspectors, therefore respecting the spirit of the Security Council resolutions with regard to Iraq.
Still, there are those who are grumbling over Mr Bush’s visit, or who appear to be doing so, not least of which the French police who made it public on Friday that they are being asked to provide no fewer than 3,500 specially-trained troops for Mr Bush’s visit to France, especially to stand along the 28 kms of highway that separate Orly Airport, where Mr Bush’s Air Force One aircraft will set down tomorrow morning, and the Elysee Palace where he will start his series of meetings with Mr Chirac in the afternoon.
The police say they’re somewhat dumbfounded that President Bush refuses to take a helicopter from Orly Airport into Paris — which is the traditional way visiting heads of state make their way to the Elysee Palace — because Mr Bush, according to the US advance security team sent to prepare the visit, feared the possibility of a terrorist rocket attack if he flew over Paris.