Rice to visit new French leaders, discuss Darfur
June 21, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit France starting on Sunday to meet new President Nicolas Sarkozy in a trip experts said would signal a recovery in bilateral ties that frayed over the Iraq war.
The June 25 meeting of the International Contact Group on Sudan/Darfur is to focus on how to get a United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force into Darfur, humanitarian aid and working with Sudan’s neighbors, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Analysts said Rice’s get-acquainted meetings with the France’s new key cabinet ministers could build on a rapport established between the conservative Sarkozy and President George W. Bush to overcome years of strained relations.
“While the previous French government was very easy to work with on some issues, like Lebanon, it was less so on others, like Darfur. That may be changing,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official and other analysts said Kouchner’s expressed strong concern about Darfur and broader human rights issues raised hopes that Washington could work with Paris to get European nations to do more on Darfur.
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The United States wants concerted international efforts to quell the violence in Darfur which international experts estimate has killed 200,000 and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Sudan puts the death toll at 9,000.
“Common trust has significantly been restored and there’s a significant basis to move forward,” said France expert Kenneth Weinstein, chief executive officer of the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.
Under former French President Jacques Chirac, France and the United States publicly quarreled over Iraq and Americans sensed that Paris was actively trying to counterbalance Washington in world affairs.
“Whether it be on Kosovo, Sudan, Middle East peace or Iran, the current government sees more eye-to-eye with the U.S. This is in part due to the very significant shift in France and in part due to some shifts in the United States,” said Weinstein.
Sarkozy, elected last month, has said France would be a friend to the United States but that there were differences in areas such as global warming that he would address.
Weinstein said that Sarkozy had taken political risks in his election campaign by expressing friendship toward the United States.
Washington has adjusted its tone toward Europe, shown a greater desire to engage Europeans on world affairs and become more proactive on global warming, he said.
(Reuters)