Wednesday, November 7, 2007

French President visits Washington DC


The French President Nicolas Sarkozy made his first visit to the United States since his election to the presidency in May of 2007.


President Sarkozy spoke to Congress today about France's support in Afghanistan, the drop of the US dollar to the Euro, and criticized the Bush administration on its weak platform on global warming. But Iran was the biggest subject President Sarkozy spoke about. President Bush said that they will "work jointly to convince the Iranian regime to give up their nuclear ambitions for the sake of peace".


He said that his visit was to "reconquer American hearts". He did so by telling Congress that France is eternally in debt to America during WWII. Known in France as "L'Americain" for his love of the American workplace, culture, and core beliefs, President Sarkozy hopes to rebuilt the once great relation between the two nations.


Will this visit help heal the broken alliance left by Iraq and France's previous president Chirac?

Will it lead to better European relations with the United States?

Or was this only a publicity stunt?


Photo courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk/

5 comments:

William Chen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William Chen said...

I think that this is both an attempt at healing a broken relationship and a publicity stunt. I believe that Sarkozy is trying to rebuild a relationship with America, but I don't think that that is the first thing on his agenda. I have a feeling that Bush asked him to come over to America to try to show the people that he (Bush) has support in his actions. He wants to prove to the people that there are nations out there that approve of what the United States is doing, instead of condemning it. He might also be trying to draw some attention away from the Iraq War by revealing that he is using diplomacy to rebuild foreign relations.

Annie C said...

They owe us for WWII?
I'd say we owed them for the American Revolution.

I agree with Wilson in that it was an attempt to rebuild relations between France and US (haha..us/U.S. get it?) as well as a publicity stunt.

The mere fact that he is known as "L'Americain" demonstrates that there is a difference between h front of Congress is a bit extreme.

However this is definitely a step in the right direction. Especially since:
"lawmakers, many of whom held France in disdain only a few years ago, burst into applause. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/world/europe/08sarkozy.html

However, this publicity might be a method with which the French government is attempting to avoid and/or compensate for the disastrous recent relations with Chad.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=607255
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-11-08T001144Z_01_L0752627_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CHAD-FRANCE-CHILDREN-COL.XML&archived=False

Kelsey said...

I think that this is a big step in improving American-European relations. The French President has made an effort to improve this relationship and our country would be a fool to reject that gesture. Therefore, I beleive our relationship with France can only get better. One thing stood out to me: I thought it was very good that the French ctitisized our global warming platform. Because Bush has rejected so many global treaties on this issue, I think it is very good for him to be pressured by an outside force, especially one that Bush is trying to build a relationship with.

Brian Duddy said...

This definitely isn't a publicity stunt. As others may have said, Sarkozy is definitely a Bushie, and this visit just reflects relations that have been better for some time now. Sarkozy was elected on that platform and he hasn't backed away from it.