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Coming together over conflict

Both the U.S. and British press have reported in the past week that relations are starting to improve between both the United States and Germany and the U.S. and France. After all, Schroeder, who visited the White House for the first time in two years, knows how to make Bush laugh.

The warming of relations centers around conflict, both in the Middle East and Haiti, but still comes at a time when Europe begins trade sanctions against the U.S. for the first time. The two leaders can mug for the cameras and smile to the press while sanctions appear and Bush tells Schroeder that it's out of his hands that the dollar's weak.

It seems there may be disagreement over foreign policy, but the real battlefield will continue to be economic. And the freeze-thaw cycle may continue.

International Herald Tribune - Schröder and Bush get in sync on Mideast

BBC News - Thaw in US-German relations

U.S. and France Set Aside Differences in Effort to Resolve Haiti Conflict

Schröder and Bush get in sync on Mideast

John Vinocur/IHT International Herald Tribune
Saturday, February 28, 2004

Easing prewar feud, they vow to press for regional reforms
 
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, saying their damaged personal relationship had improved, pledged Friday to bring the United States and Germany together to create a new approach for the Middle East that would replace "fear and resentment with freedom and hope."

The two leaders, in a statement on what they called the Greater Middle East, said, "We will coordinate our efforts closely to respond to calls for reform in the region, and to develop specific proposals" to put before the separate summit meetings in June of NATO, the Group of Eight, and American and European Union leaders.

The statement, referring to the White House's Greater Middle East initiative and the German plan for the region proposed by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, was meant to demonstrate a new level of German-American cooperation after the angry differences of the Iraq war.

In the runup to that conflict, Bush was widely reported to consider Schröder as a leader who had broken a promise to him in early 2002 that he would not oppose American action in Iraq.

Today, although the two men did not look exceptionally at ease, Bush said of Schröder: "The chancellor has a good sense of humor. Therefore he's able to make me laugh." And that, Bush continued, "means I've got a comfortable relationship with him." That improved comfort level was apparently reached partly by a joint agreement to look forward and not dwell on past bitterness over Iraq.

As Schröder said, "Indeed we talked about not about the past; we very much agreed on that we have to talk about the present and the future now." That did not mean, however, that Iraq was off the table. Though the two did not refer to it publicly, Schröder had been expected to make clearer a promise to forgive a substantial portion of the billions of dollars owed it by Iraq. He said before leaving Berlin that Germany was prepared to offer "substantial debt relief." Germany has also agreed to train Iraqi police, beginning in mid-March, in the United Arab Emirates.

And Bush said he was "particularly grateful" for Germany's help in Afghanistan, where he said it was playing a "constructive role in making sure that country is able to survive in a - as a free nation." There was a clear element of American election-year politics in the meeting Friday. Bush seemed determined to demonstrate that the United States' relationship with Europe had not, as some Democrats have charged, strikingly deteriorated.

"Germany is an important nation," he said. "It's essential that America have good relations with Europe." The chancellor, who sought to bolster Germany's role within the EU by showing that ties with America had been re-established at a confident level, talked to reporters after the meeting.

"A very friendly atmosphere," Schröder replied, when a reporter asked him about the quality of his personal relationship with the president. "I'm very satisfied."

A participant at the meeting said that the exchanges ranged from the Middle East to economic problems to both leaders' judgment of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the present circumstances in the region of the former Soviet Union.

The participant said there had been no reference made to Germany's decision not to provide troops for an eventual NATO mission in Iraq, because the chancellor's viewpoint had been made sufficiently clear prior to the discussions.

The joint statement Friday, in effect, gave Germany a new kind of prominence among European nations on the Middle East.

Bush and Schröder said in a statement: "We commit our nations to an ambitious goal, rooted in our shared values and experience: to promote freedom, democracy, human dignity, the rule of law, economic opportunity, and security in the Greater Middle East. Fear and resentment must be replaced with freedom and hope."

The statement continued, "We must build a genuine partnership connecting Europe and America with the wider Middle East, aimed at cooperating with the countries and peoples of that region to achieve these just objectives and to live side by side in peace."

The participant at the meeting acknowledged that there may be some resentment from other European countries or from the EU itself about the role Germany has taken since Fischer's speech on the Middle East at a security conference in Munich this month.

EU foreign policy officials will be at the White House on Monday for talks about the EU's vision for the region.

France has expressed concerns that German and U.S. references to the role of NATO in the region as a guarantor of security would stir up old resentments and resistance within Arab nations toward Western involvement in the region.

But representatives of the United States and Europe were described by diplomats after the meeting as attempting to consult with Middle Eastern governments about the agendas of the three June meetings. Position papers were also circulating on the American, German and EU initiatives in preparation for two of those meetings, the Group of Eight summit talks at Sea Island, Georgia, and the NATO meeting in Istanbul.

Schröder further stressed in remarks to reporters that the two countries "are together" in "putting disagreements in the past." Along this line, the joint statement described the Americans and Germans as being "united in support of a free Iraq; a secure, unified, democratic and fully sovereign nation." Bush, perhaps in recognition of Germany's desire for multilateral action on the international scale, seemed to go in this direction through a sentence in the statement that said, "We welcome and support the vital and growing role of the United Nations in Iraq." The statement contained no specific reference to Schröder's complaints that the United States had to do more to stop the fall of the dollar against other currencies, and to right the trade imbalances growing out of this situation.

In Schröder's first White House visit in two years, the two leaders also discussed tensions in Korea and the global war on terrorism, they said, without providing details. The chancellor had also been expected to raise European concerns over the fall of the dollar against the euro, which has caused considerable difficulties for European exporters.

Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune

 Thaw in US-German relations
By Justin Webb
BBC correspondent in Washington

After two years of bitter animosity, Germany and the United States are once again friends.

That is the message Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President George Bush are seeking to convey.

The Bush administration has been at pains recently to point out how grateful it is for German military help in Afghanistan and to promise that although rebuilding contracts in Iraq are to go initially to nations which helped in the war that could change in the future.

Germany for its part has been stressing common goals particularly in the war on terror.

A nasty fallout

Relations really have been quite bad between the two countries.

American leaders were questioning the political good sense of Chancellor Schroeder and suggesting that he was acting in bad faith.

The Germans said the US was acting arrogantly.

It was quite a nasty fallout, but both nations realise that they have a lot to lose if relations are soured in the long term.

Germany is, as President Bush said, a very important country.

It is one of the leaders of the European Union. It is an economic powerhouse - albeit a rather damaged powerhouse in recent years.

There's nothing wrong with friends having differences and we're both committed to putting the differences behind us
President Bush

For Germany not to be on board in the wider war on terrorism and other American policy objectives around the world would be quite a serious thing.

And both leaders realise that, which explains why they were so keen to patch up the differences they have had.

However, there is very little of substance that has changed.

From the American side, they are not yet in a position to tell the Germans that they can have their companies bid for contracts to rebuild Iraq.

From the German side, they are not yet ready to say they will send German troops to Iraq as they have to Afghanistan.

Changing mood music

The two men were asked mainly about Iraq but that subject was challenged for its place at the top of the agenda today by the more pressing question of the weakness of the dollar.

It is a weakness which has boosted American companies - with American goods much cheaper in Europe - and harmed European firms, with European goods more expensive in America.

There is still a suspicion on the German side that not enough is being done to keep the dollar at what they consider an acceptable exchange rate.

But the chancellor says he accepts President Bush's promise that he has not deliberately allowed the dollar to weaken in order to boost US manufacturers at the expense of Europeans.

On none of these things do we see agreement, but the mood music has changed with respect to the Germans and the Americans.

And mood music is important in international relations.

President Bush spoke very warmly about Chancellor Schroeder, saying that he made him laugh and has a great sense of humour.

And President Bush sets great store by his personal relationship with foreign leaders and on that subject he made it clear that things were going well.

It may well mean that some of those substantive issues might see progress in the not so distant future.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3494744.stm

Published: 2004/02/27 21:53:44 GMT

© BBC MMIV

March 3, 2004
THE ALLIES

U.S. and France Set Aside Differences in Effort to Resolve Haiti Conflict
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

ARIS, March 2 — It took a crisis over the Caribbean country of Haiti to get French-American relations back on track.

There is nothing romantic about the reconciliation. The United States and France are motivated by their own histories, national interests and domestic politics in deciding to work together to send troops to restore order to Haiti after the departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

When it comes to Iraq, by contrast, President Bush's conviction that he was right in waging war remains as fixed as President Jacques Chirac's conviction that he was right in opposing it.

But the joint diplomacy over Haiti is a dramatic example of how the longtime allies can set aside differences, find common ground, play to their strengths and even operate in an atmosphere of trust.

On Monday, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, described the departure of Mr. Aristide as a result of "perfect coordination" between France and the United States.

On Tuesday, Mr. Bush telephoned Mr. Chirac to express delight over "the excellent French-American cooperation in Haiti" and to "thank France for its action," Catherine Colonna, Mr. Chirac's spokeswoman, told reporters.

Mr. Chirac responded that he was also pleased that France and the United States had such "good diplomacy working" and that they now needed to bring peace and stability to Haiti, Ms. Colonna said in a subsequent telephone interview.

France was willing to take the lead, and the heat, in proposing the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to its French-speaking former colony, urging Mr. Aristide to step aside and helping facilitate his departure. It was only after Mr. de Villepin laid out the proposal that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell followed suit.

France, with the United States, also persuaded the Central African Republic to give Mr. Aristide temporary exile, and France is helping protect him with troops stationed in the impoverished country since a military coup there last year, two senior French officials said.

Despite initial French reluctance to send troops that might be portrayed at home to be part of an American military "invasion" of Haiti, French and American forces will work side by side, as they do in Afghanistan, but not Iraq.

By Wednesday, 350 French troops from both the Foreign Legion and the navy based in the Caribbean will be deployed in Haiti.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie acknowledged that France was involved in protecting Mr. Aristide but said he was free to leave whenever he wished.

"Today, he is protected and not imprisoned," Ms. Alliot-Marie said in an interview with Europe 1 radio.

She added that, "France is not controlling his comings and goings," but that, "this is simply a question of ensuring that his temporary stay in the Central African Republic takes place under normal conditions."

But Mr. Aristide can go nowhere unless another country gives him asylum, and Ms. Alliot-Marie did not say where or when he might be going.

However, her remarks prompted a swift denial by Col. Christian Baptiste, the spokesman for the French Armed Forces.

"She's not in the know with what is happening in regards to the security of this man," he said in a telephone interview, adding, "There was no physical or verbal contact between the French and the Aristide group."

A senior official at Élysée Palace also said French troops helped Mr. Aristide's plane to land but were not stationed anywhere near the place where he had taken refuge.

A senior Defense Ministry official defended his boss, saying that local authorities would never have agreed to accept Mr. Aristide, however temporarily, without guarantees of French protection.

During the Iraq crisis, Mr. Powell and Mr. de Villepin each felt betrayed by the other. The low point came in January 2003 when Mr. Powell felt he had been blindsided when Mr. de Villepin turned a Security Council meeting into a forum to severely criticize Washington and declare that nothing justified envisaging military action in Iraq. American officials who were with Mr. Powell that day said at the time that they had never seen him so angry.

In turn, Mr. de Villepin said he felt betrayed by Mr. Powell's assurances that the goal of American policy was not to overthrow Saddam Hussein but to disarm Iraq.

But that was then. The Haiti crisis has required Mr. Powell and Mr. de Villepin to consult regularly by phone, sometimes more than once a day.

Both nations have an interest in forestalling an influx of refugees — the Bush administration to Florida during an election year, and France to its Caribbean provinces.

About a million French citizens live in the Caribbean area.

Posted by Andrew Becker at March 4, 2004 12:18 PM