This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a first official state visit to the United States, the first in two-and-a-half years. However, the question arises whether this is the seal on a new bilateral era or just a prelude to fresh discord.
 
It is certainly no secret that France and the United States have been at odds for decades. At the end of the 1950s, President Charles de Gaulle openly expressed opposition to the alleged US hegemony within NATO. Paris withdrew all French troops under NATO command and left the alliance’s military leadership. The move set the tone for relations between the two countries: France wanted to remain a superpower in its own right, whereas the US regarded its European ally as a pigheaded troublemaker – and that’s the way things were for decades   

Low point
As recent as 2003, US-French relations reached a new low when France strongly opposed an invasion of Iraq. The then French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin had the following to say:
 
“There is no justification for the use of force in this context. At present, there is an alternative to war: disarming Iraq through inspections. In addition, resorting prematurely to the military option would have serious consequences”.

At the Security Council, Paris and Washington were diametrically opposed – the way things had been for decades. However, the situation changed radically with the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president in 2007. He was the first French president to go on vacation in the United States. He appeared to be the embodiment of the American Dream. He may not have started his career as paperboy, but he did rise to France’s most exalted office from humble beginnings as the son of an Hungarian immigrant.
 
New élan
Nicolas Sarkozy began improving ties with the US when Republican president George W Bush was still in office. The rise of Barack Obama appeared to herald an era with two kindred spirits holding superior office: both relative newcomers, ambitious and both representing a new élan in world politics.

”Never before in history have the US and France been so much in agreement on the main issues and the main subjects," said Mr Sarkozy. "I would like to tell you that it’s a pleasure working with Barack Obama. We work together regularly. He knows France is a friend of the United States”.

And these sentiments were clearly mutual:
 
"The American people greatly appreciate President Sarkozy’s approach. When he came - as president now - to speak, he was treated like a rock star. Everybody loved him and I think it was after that that everybody decided to call French fries French fries again," responded Mr Obama.
 
Things were off to a good start. President Sarkozy decided France was to become a full member of NATO again and the two countries apparently intended to join forces on international issues such as the environment and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
 
Honeymoon soon over
But ripples soon disturbed the smooth surface of the Franco-American relationship. The personal match between the two presidents was not quite 100 percent. Mr Sarkozy made an all-out effort to become the US president’s best friend in Europe, but Mr Obama was just as eager to become friends with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. And the US and France have major economic differences of opinion. Their approaches to the financial crisis were quite different and led to mutual reproaches.
 
And the differences of opinion also include international political issues. France has rejected a US request to send additional troops to Afghanistan. And Washington feels France has struck much too strident a tone regarding Iran and its alleged programme to build nuclear weapons.

The US President has openly advocated a world free of nuclear weapons; a position that is unimaginable to his French counterpart. At the United Nations last year, Mr Sarkozy rather undiplomatically told Mr Obama: “This is the real world, not a virtual world.”   

Thorny issues
The cooled relations have put Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Washington in a different light. The French president who was so eager to become close friends with his transatlantic colleague, is now visiting a head of state with whom he has fundamental differences of opinion on a rather large number of thorny economic and political issues. Their honeymoon is definitely over.

(RNW translation: gsh)