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Sarkozy to the US: "I’m your free friend"

by Open-Publishing - Monday 12 March 2007

France FR - Presidential 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy detailed his foreign policy programme this week in Paris in a hotel conference room packed with international journalists. The place was too small to seat all the visiting Chinese, Hungarian, American, Brazilian colleagues - to name only a few nationalities.

The candidate started his speech with a vibrant homage to Jacques Chirac’s foreign policy: " I approve of everything that was done for 12 years", he said. Chirac "restored the Blue Helmets’ honour in Bosnia", diplayed "lucidity on Iraq" and did the right thing about climate change.

By the end of the conference, however, he called for a radical change in what has been a sticky feature in Chirac’s policy and that of his predecessors in Africa: "We have to get rid of unofficial contacts", Sarkozy said. "We must de-personalise relations", he added, insisting that diplomatic ties could not only rely on the fact that two heads of state have friendly feelings for each other.

Sarkozy also pleaded for a new EU constitutional treaty reduced to institutional reform, including the election of a stable EU president and the nomination of a European minister for foreign affairs.

He said that decisions related to the judiciary and immigration should be made on a majority basis. “When a country considers its vital interests to be at stake, it should be able to say ‘no’ without preventing the other 26 to move forward”, he said.

Regarding Iran, Sarkozy favoured a reinforcement of the sanctions if Tehran pursues its nuclear programme. He plans to curb proliferation through a new international treaty that would allow developing countries access to nuclear plants but prevent them from enriching uranium, which could be used for military purposes. “I favour a World bank of civil nuclear fuels”, he said, explaining that the international community could halt enriched uranium deliveries to menacing states if necessary.

He also wants environmental issues to be managed by a multilateral organisation and still hopes to involve the US in that process. Sarkozy is known for his attraction towards America. He recently paid a visit to George W. Bush and has just hired Axel Poniatowski, the chairman of a parliamentary committee for friendhsip between France and the US and author of books in favour of warmer Frenc-US relations, as his spokesman on foreign policy. "I want France to be a free friend of the United States, who is able to say no when we are not in agreement", Sarkozy said.

He delivered the same message in the direction of Israel, defending its right to security while at the same time criticising last summer’s war on the Lebanon as "disproportionate".

Russia and China, on the other hand, were treated more roughly. "A country where journalists are assassinated, that is not acceptable. What has been happening in Chechnya is not acceptable", Sarkozy said. He also called on the Chinese government to move on political freedom and environmental policy.

It remains to be seen if Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao paid attention.

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