DR. RICE WILL BE THRILLED TO HEAR THIS

A French call for a new day with U.S.(Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune, January 10th, 2005)

Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, is calling for a "new relationship" with the United States and says its first test will be the capacity of President George W. Bush and his European allies to advance a Middle East peace within the next six months.

"For me, President Bush has a historic responsibility," Barnier said in an interview on Friday. That responsibility, in the post-Arafat Middle East, he said, is to bring Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, ensure a successful Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and engage talks based on the road map toward peace, "which envisages an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank." [...]

His commitment to hold regular meetings with American officials and his determination to address differences reinforced and expanded on recent statements from the French president, Jacques Chirac, suggesting that Paris now seeks improved ties.

The discussions, the minister suggested, should aim to draw the United States and France closer on two essential points.

The first, he said, is that the world must be organized not "around a single pillar but several pillars," among them the United States, China, Russia and the European Union.

The EU should be recognized as a steadfast "ally of the Americans," he said, adding: "An alliance does not mean allegiance. It should mean partnership."

He was asked if an alliance meant allegiance at moments of crisis like the Iraq war. "It is never allegiance," Barnier said, his pale blue eyes assuming a steely hue. "An alliance is a partnership based on mutual respect." [...]

When it was put to him that the European Union, which has 25 member nations, was now seen in some conservative circles in Washington as a potential rival whose further integration may not be in the U.S. interest, Barnier retorted that the Union would continue to grow regardless of the Bush administration's views.

"Americans must understand that it is in their interest that Europe get organized and have an autonomy," he said. "It's the price to pay for an effective alliance. The alliance between Europeans and Americans must be balanced."

The second point of discord on which Barnier wants to work with the United States is the fight on terrorism.

"We think that to fight terrorism correctly, you also have to fight the ground in which it grows," he said. That ground, the minister suggested, was poverty and injustice.

"A safer world and a freer world will first be a more just world," Barnier said. "There we have our differences." He did not elaborate on how broader social justice should be achieved.

Andrei Gromyko would be very impressed.