As we all know, French president Nicolas Sarkozy is pro-American, even though it remains to be seen just how this attitude will affect the relationship between France and the US. Sarkozy has been presented as the figure successful in convincing the US to become more active in dealing with global warming. The US opposes any compulsory regulations, saying that China (who is the worst culprit in this arena) doesn’t cooperate. In fact what Sarkozy truly obtained is a goodwill declaration indicating a 50 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions during the next 20-25 years. France actually doesn’t even seem to be disturbed by the absence of China in the G8 Summits. France supports US positions regarding the independence of Kosovo and is therefore in conflict with Russia about the issue. However it does support Russia’s views on the US missile project and is opposed to the US presence in Iraq. Additionally France pursues good relations with Iran, a country declared as an enemy of the US. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, France has always supported Palestinian groups over US-favored Israel. Meanwhile France also assists the Maronites in Lebanon. In the Caucasus the US supports Georgia, a country that may even join NATO one day, while France prefers cooperation with Russia and Armenia. France has not yet decided whether to come back to the military wing of NATO, and tends to place emphasis on the EU, contrary to US requests for a US-EU rapprochement. Furthermore its views on the future of European integration seem to be damaging the traditional constructive cooperation between France and Germany, while strengthening the usual anti-British stance. Ultimately each country’s conservatives have a different kind of conservatism. France continues to say Turkey is an Asiatic country, forgetting that Europe’s biggest problem is an absence in Asia and that the US supports Turkish accession to the EU.
If Sarkozy’s new government hopes to make France a global power once again, a primary focus must be relations with the US. Given this, France, like Turkey, has no choice but to determine quickly its position vis-à-vis Russia. After having done that, it should make clear a position on Europe’s future, because its insistence on several issues has the potential to deepen divisions within the EU. Apparently France’s European project doesn’t include cooperation with the US. However if a rapprochement does appear in US-EU relations, France will have to modify its anti-American policy in the Middle East. This change of attitude will demonstrate just how much France is willing to support the US in Iraq and how it will heal relations with Turkey. France has declared that its priority is Africa, without taking into consideration all of these paradoxes. Even the African choice involves difficult judgments as France cannot strengthen its position on the African continent simply by increasing food aid (as it tried before in Iraq). As long as France doesn’t make clear a position regarding the great powers, it will have limited liberty of action in Africa. It’s easy to say that your country is going to the African continent, but the resolution of problems created by other powers and historical responsibilities is not an easy task.
If France is really in a “new” period, then it has to adopt a new foreign policy path. For this reason France needs to be more careful when it comes to Turkey.
