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President Bush heralded a “new era of transatlantic unity” when he arrived in France yesterday, with the location of his speech as significant as its content. By choosing Paris for what White House officials described as “the centrepiece” of his week-long farewell trip to Europe, Mr Bush sought to put the seal on a dramatic transformation in relations with France since President Sarkozy was elected last year. Britain, which for so long has acted as a sometimes rickety bridge across the Atlantic, no longer has such strategic diplomatic importance. President Bush is spending two nights in Paris, but only one...

"French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner discussed investment projects to help rebuild Iraq on Saturday on a visit to the country whose 2003 invasion by U.S.-led troops Paris strongly opposed."

In the past few months, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced the first French military base in the Middle East, christened his country's costliest nuclear submarine and advocated returning troops to NATO command. Sarkozy's efforts to project the image of a militarily powerful France reasserting itself on the global security stage mask a behind-the-scenes struggle over withering defense budgets that threaten to reduce combat-ready forces by as much as 40 percent, sideline major new weapons programs and eliminate bases in Africa. Philippe Moreau Defarges, an analyst at the French Institute of International Relations, described Sarkozy's public pronouncements as "mostly an...

France has agreed to deploy a battalion of new troops to Afghanistan, a NATO spokesperson announced Wednesday. The Prime Minister's Office confirmed with CTV News that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has offered a battalion of soldiers -- normally around 700-800 troops -- to be deployed to the eastern region of Afghanistan. The announcement comes from just before the opening of a NATO leaders summit in Bucharest, Romania. "And the Americans, we are told by the PMO, have agreed to boost their resources as well," reported CTV's Graham Richardson in Bucharest. The U.S. troops, expected to number 1,000, are expected to...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will send more troops to Afghanistan to support Nato's mission. Mr Sarkozy, who is on a state visit to Britain, said he would make the offer at next week's Nato summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. Nato leaders have frequently called on member countries to contribute more soldiers to the mission in Afghanistan. The Nato-led International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) currently has over 43,000 personnel in Afghanistan. In a speech to the British parliament in London, Mr Sarkozy said defeat to Taleban insurgents was not an option. "In Afghanistan something essential is...

LONDON (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy will tell British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during a state visit next week that he plans to send an extra 1,000 French soldiers to Afghanistan, the Times reported Saturday. One anonymous senior minister told the paper that Britain's Ministry of Defence is working on the assumption that Sarkozy will reveal a deployment of "slightly more than 1,000 troops to the eastern region" to fight the Taliban. Sarkozy wants to underline his commitment to NATO during the visit but a formal announcement may not be made until a NATO summit in Bucharest next month, the...

Counterterrorism, like espionage and covert action, isn’t a spectator sport. The more a country practices, the better it gets. France has become the most accomplished counterterrorist practitioner in Europe. Whereas September 11, 2001, was a shock to the American counterterrorist establishment, it wasn’t a révolution des mentalités in Paris. Two waves of terrorist attacks, the first in the mid-1980s and the second in the mid-1990s, have made France acutely aware of both state-supported Middle Eastern terrorism and freelancing but organized Islamic extremists. In comparison, the security services in Great Britain and Germany were slow to awaken to the threat from...

France to send more troops to Afghanistan: report Updated Tue. Feb. 26 2008 5:31 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff France may be sending hundreds of ground troops to eastern Afghanistan to help NATO-led forces in the battle against Taliban insurgents, a French newspaper is reporting. The move comes as Canada has been appealing its NATO allies for troop reinforcements in the more dangerous southern region of Afghanistan. The Le Monde report said the French move is part of a new Afghan policy being worked out by President Nicholas Sarkozy. France has just under 2,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, but most...

Earlier this month, I wrote that Nicolas Sarkozy might consider showing some leadership in Europe by bolstering France's combat participation in Afghanistan. Le Monde reported earlier today that Sarkozy has all but committed the troops to the front lines: France may send hundreds of ground troops to east Afghanistan where NATO-led forces are fighting al Qaeda-backed insurgents, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday. It said the move would be part of a new Afghan policy being worked out by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers. France has about 1,900 soldiers under NATO's Afghan command, most of them based in relatively...

They had big black beards, big warm smiles. They had a dozen young Afghan army trainees in tow, each with a grin to match. They didn't even have flak jackets, let alone a speck of armour on the two brown pickup trucks that kept their show on the road. They were French special forces, in an especially dodgy part of Afghanistan, where the French supposedly don't go. And they'd been there a while. It was late February 2006 – nearly two years ago now – but this close encounter came vividly to mind yesterday when talk of a possible French...

February 9, 2008 Nicolas Sarkozy offers French troops to join Canadians in fighting the Taleban in Kandahar Michael Evans, Defence Editor President Sarkozy rode to the rescue of beleaguered Nato forces in southern Afghanistan yesterday when he offered to deploy French troops alongside Canadians in Kandahar. The French leader has been the most forthcoming of Nato leaders in answering the urgent call to help the troops fighting Taleban insurgents. After Canada’s repeated warnings that it would pull its 2,500 troops out of Kandahar if no other alliance member came to support them, France has been the only country to hint...

<p>In a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Saturday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said France might increase its troop presence in the country to help defeat the Taliban-led insurgency.</p> <p>“There is a war going on here — a war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and will not lose,” he told reporters who accompanied him on the trip.</p>

The United States Congress welcomed Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, with loud cheers and standing ovations on Wednesday, a sign that France had been forgiven for opposing the American-led war in Iraq. In a speech to a joint meeting of Congress — a rare honor for a head of state — Mr. Sarkozy seemed to strike all the right notes. He spoke of his love of the American dream and cultural icons of the 20th century, from Elvis Presley to Ernest Hemingway. He expressed admiration for American values and for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He thanked the...

state visit is a natural occasion for rhetoric celebrating the ties between guest and host. Having declared at the White House on Tuesday that he wished to "reconquer the heart of America in a lasting fashion", Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday wooed a joint session of Congress with mentions of Lafayette and Washington, American intervention in Europe in 1917 and 1944, the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift. But on top of these familiar historical references, the French president lauded the "can-do" spirit of America, whether expressed through stars such as Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe or through the moon landing of...

On the second day of his official visit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met again with President Bush, this time at Mount Vernon, Virginia, the historic home of our first president, George Washington. There the two leaders discussed the War On Terror, including Iran, and made themselves available for questions during a press conference at the estate. President Bush: Mr. President, welcome. Thank you very much for coming here to Mount Vernon, and thank you for coming to the United States. I think it's safe to say that you've impressed a lot of people here on your journey. (Transcript) Before arriving...

Diplomacy: Nicolas Sarkozy's warm embrace of America on Wednesday did much to improve a relationship his "sophisticated" predecessor had trashed. Ironically, it's likely to raise France's standing in the world.France's president seemed to know this. His quip that he proved it possible to "be a friend of America and win an election in France" went to the heart of his new approach: Being friends with the U.S. is a very good way to be popular with voters. Rather than undercut the U.S. behind the scenes and openly hurl insults, as the supposedly urbane Jacques Chirac did, Sarkozy harmonized the two...

Following is the speech that French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered Wednesday in a rare address by a foreign dignitary to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives. U.S. lawmakers gave the French leader a three-minute standing ovation and his address was met bursts of warm applause.Madam Speaker, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the United States Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen, the state of our friendship and our alliance is strong. Friendship, first and foremost, means being true to one's friends. Since the United States first appeared on the world scene, the loyalty between the French and American...

<p>U.S. and French presidents agreed on Wednesday to keep up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, signaling a further warming of once-chilly relations between Washington and Paris.</p> <p>In a sign that diplomatic ties have advanced beyond the era of "freedom fries," U.S. President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy found common ground against Tehran, insisting it could not be allowed to develop nuclear arms.</p>

Since Tony Blair left office, there have been few applicants for the vacant post of George W Bush's best friend. The Dalai Lama beamed his way through Washington recently, receiving a Congressional Gold Medal and a warm handshake at the White House. Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was proud to receive a Presidential Medal of Honour this week in recognition of her work as Africa's first elected female head of state. Major actors on the world stage have not been beating a path to the door of the man responsible for the debacle in Iraq, with one exception. This summer, within weeks...

Since Tony Blair left office, there have been few applicants for the vacant post of George W Bush's best friend. The Dalai Lama beamed his way through Washington recently, receiving a Congressional Gold Medal and a warm handshake at the White House. Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was proud to receive a Presidential Medal of Honour this week in recognition of her work as Africa's first elected female head of state. Major actors on the world stage have not been beating a path to the door of the man responsible for the debacle in Iraq, with one exception. This summer, within weeks...