DIPLOMATIC LUNCH -- The French were elated by the success of the Bush-Sarkozy lunch at Kennebunkport, which Paris regards as the first in a sequence of meetings designed to establish a personal relationship between the two leaders. Sarkozy certainly, and Bush presumably, will be in New York for the opening of the U.N. National Assembly on Sept. 23, when U.N. ritual prescribes that they will sit together at lunch. An official visit to Washington by the French president will follow shortly afterwards, possibly by the end of that same month. The warming of U.S.-French relations is all the more satisfactory for the French because it came within days of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to Washington, which seemed aimed at cooling down the fervor of the Bush-Tony Blair partnership. From all accounts, Brown was correct but far from effusive, hammering on such issues as global warming and aid for Africa, both of which are not now, and will not be, high on the Bush agenda. When the two leaders addressed the press at Camp David, one European diplomat observed, "it was as though they were speaking different galactic languages." But Brown and Sarkozy approach the Bush administration with different priorities. Brown is campaigning for re-election next year, and must distance himself from Bush, who is politically the kiss of death in Europe. The British prime minister, who for years has spent part of the summer at Cape Cod, is vacationing in England and his native Scotland this year. Sarkozy -- elected in April -- has more leeway in cozying up to Bush in the interest of repairing the damage to his country's trans-Atlantic ties that resulted from the Iraq war.
Corridors of Power: Sarko’s Walker’s Point Visit and Europe’s Gypsies
