World>Terrorism & Security
posted June 30, 2004, updated 12:45 p.m.

The transatlantic rift

Bush and Chirac's disagreements at NATO summit show wounds haven't healed.

by Matthew Clark | csmonitor.com

Much time has passed since the transatlantic rift - epitomized by the opposing positions France and the US held on whether to invade Iraq - reached a fever pitch in the leadup to the war. But, despite a much heralded show of unity during the G-8 summit at Sea Island, Ga. in the US, the June 28-29 NATO summit in Istanbul was a reminder that relations between the US and France are still strained.

The sharpest disagreements in months between French President Jacques Chirac and US President George W. Bush were on full display in Turkey. News sources from around the world reminded readers of the tense state of affairs between the traditional allies. Referring to the D-Day commemorations in France, the G-8 summit, last weekend's American-EU talks in Ireland, and the NATO summit, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote:

"Clashes between George Bush and Jacques Chirac have brought a sour end to a series of recent high-profile gatherings of European and US leaders which were supposed to finally heal the transatlantic rift caused by the Iraq war."


06/29/04 Pundits laud 'enemy combatants' ruling 06/28/04 Iraqi insurgent groups have different goals 06/25/04 What to expect from the summits

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The Herald reports that the two presidents marked the end of the summit by "openly and undiplomatically disagreeing over the alliance's role in Iraq and Afghanistan and Turkey's proposed admission to the European Union."

Reuters reports that Chirac " crossed swords with Washington ... demonstrating that Franco-US relations are still at best lukewarm...."

[Chirac] missed no opportunity to needle the United States during the alliance's summit in Istanbul, souring a mood of rediscovered amity more than a year after bitter divisions over the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

The Guardian reports that Chirac "undermined hopes of burying transatlantic disagreements when he insisted he was ' entirely hostile' to any NATO presence in Iraq, which he warned would be 'dangerous and counterproductive.'"

Chirac also resisted pressure from the US and pleas from Afghan president Hamid Karzai to send some NATO troops to Afghanistan to boost security ahead of Afghanistan's elections in September. Although NATO leaders pledged to boost the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from its current 6,500 troops to 10,000, France refused the call to send the NATO Response Force (NRF) to Afghanistan. "The NRF is not designed for this. It shouldn't be used just for any old matter," said Chirac.

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned that opposition to deploying the NRF "could be circumvented by taking a decision in a forum which excludes France," reports The Guardian.

At the end of the summit Bush restated US support for Turkey's admission to the EU, despite the fact that Chirac had publicly rebuked him a day earlier for becoming involved in European affairs. Bush said Tuesday that Turkey belongs in the EU and that Europe is 'not the exclusive club of a single religion', in what the Straits Times of Singapore said " amounted to a rejection of [Chirac]."

On Monday Chirac suggested that Bush may have overstepped his boundaries in his saying that Turkey should be an EU member.

If President Bush really said that the way I read it, well, not only did he go too far but he went into a domain which is not his own. ... It is like me trying to tell the United States how it should manage its relations with Mexico.

Speaking of France's relationship to the US, Chirac said: "We are friends and allies but we are not servants. ... When we don't agree we don't say so aggressively, but in a firm manner."

New York Times columnist William Safire asserts that Chirac's moves are isolationist and suggests that France wants the situation in Iraq to worsen in order that it might justify France's "profitable protection" of Saddam Hussein's regime.

I was profoundly mistaken about how far into isolation this former ally would go. Evidently Chirac finds political salvation in being openly and contemptuously anti-Bush. He has placed all of his nation's diplomatic chips on the defeat of Bush in November.
Chirac takes that gamble because he is afflicted with certitude about this: if freedom fails in Iraq, France's long and profitable protection of Saddam will somehow be justified.

The Herald reports that "the US plan to push for an increased NATO presence in Afghanistan irrespective of the French is likely to set the scene for further transatlantic clashes in the coming months and may further slow efforts by several countries to repair relations between Washington and Brussels."

Meanwhile, in Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair "says he worries NATO's efforts against international terrorism are still not strong enough," reports the BBC.