Chirac in UK to meet Blair
First top-level bilateral talks since Iraq war
AFP, London
French President Jacques Chirac arrived in London yesterday for a day-long summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair focusing on the way forward in Iraq, European defence and the EU constitution. Their talks at Downing Street -- hot on the heels of US President George W. Bush's state visit to Britain last week -- will be their first bilateral meeting since they fell out over the US-led invasion of Iraq last March. Blair was also to meet later in the day with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who is in London for a business seminar. Officials say Chirac, accompanied by his prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, will discuss occupied Iraq's reconstruction and the proposed June 2004 transfer of sovereignty with Blair. The two leaders fell out over the need for war against Saddam Hussein, with Blair siding with Bush and Chirac opting for more time for UN inspectors to seek out alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Blair and Chirac were also due to review the stymied Middle East peace process, and it was likely that the French president will give public words of solidarity for Britain after last Thursday's suicide bombings in Istanbul. Regarding Europe, political analysts say Chirac will be looking for signs of commitment from Blair for the creation of a European military planning capability independent of NATO. Blair was initially cool to the idea -- co-sponsored by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg -- when it was announced in April. The Bush administration is opposed, fearing it will undermine NATO. But more recently he has signalled a willingness to agree to it, though observers expect he will want an iron-clad guarantee that NATO will remain the linchpin of European security. The proposed military planning facility, likely based in Brussels, would supply the brainpower for EU military operations which US-dominated NATO would prefer not to participate in. Blair and Chirac are also likely to review work on the proposed EU constitution that will be put before European leaders at their quarterly summit in Brussels on December 12-13. The two leaders' last bilateral summit took place at Le Touquet, on the French side of the English Channel, in February, but they have seen each other several times since then at multilateral events.
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