Germany Changes Course
The Telegraph reports that Germany is edging away from its diplomatic partnership with France and seeking better relations with the U.S., Great Britain, and other European countries:
Germany is seeking to distance itself from France's tight embrace and realign itself more closely to Britain and America, senior German officials signalled yesterday.They said the row with Washington over Iraq had been "catastrophic" for Berlin and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had become "a prisoner" of President Jacques Chirac's campaign to oppose the war to topple Saddam Hussein last year.
The latest indications of Berlin's quest for a rapprochement with London and Washington came two days after Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, abandoned Berlin's dream of creating a European federal state. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Fischer said the Iraq crisis had exposed the divisions within Europe and brought home to him the need to accept diverse traditions and history.
He even adopted some of Tony Blair's language about the need for the European Union to rest "on strong member states" rather than becoming a "superstate"... "German-French understanding is a necessary condition to move Europe forward, but it is not sufficient," said one senior official. "The European project cannot move without Britain and Poland. This is not always understood in France."
The aftermath of the Iraq war has largely vindicated the administration's diplomacy, but this good news has been lost in the "Bush lied!" frenzy.
