The Hindu : International : Bush on bridge-building visit to Europe

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Sunday, Feb 20, 2005

International

International

Bush on bridge-building visit to Europe

By Julian Borger
and Nicholas Watt

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS, FEB. 19. Romantic trans-Atlanticists, who look back fondly to the days when Europe and the United States were best of friends, will feel a pang of nostalgia next week.

On the penultimate day of his visit to Europe, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, will have lunch in the Rhine city of Mainz where his father won rapturous applause after famously challenging the Soviets in 1989 to ``tear down'' the Berlin Wall.

The symbolism of the younger Bush's appearance in Germany next Wednesday (February 23) will not be lost on Europe's leaders who hope the President's four-day visit will go a long way to repairing the most serious transatlantic rift in modern times.

Tomorrow night the delicate bridge-building mission begins when Mr. Bush leaves Washington bound for Brussels, home to the E.U. and NATO, two institutions treated with caution and distrust in the first term.

Amid a dawning realisation by the White House that its radical global agenda will be hobbled without European support, the President will not seek to pick off willing coalition partners from ``New Europe''.

Instead the trip will be a homage to what his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, once derided as ``Old Europe'' as the President courts his two most bitter European rivals, most notably Gerhard Schroeder in Mainz.

In a sign that there are limits to the transatlantic love-in, Jacques Chirac will have to make do with dinner at the American ambassador's residence in Brussels on Monday night.

Mr. Chirac had hoped to host Mr. Bush on French soil at the Elysee Palace, but will dine under the Stars and Stripes as the White House makes clear that Paris has still not been totally forgiven for its fierce opposition to the Iraq war.

Hidden unease

Any unease will be hidden behind smiles the following day when Mr. Bush visits the European Commission and the European council, which will be the highlight of the trip for the E.U.'s 25 leaders who will all be on parade.

``This is a gesture of reaching out to Europe,'' declared the E.U.'s Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana.

The White House is focusing its attention on a speech by Mr. Bush on Monday, in Brussels' ornate Concert Noble banqueting hall, when the President will address Europe as a whole.

It will be a bow to the continent's growing unity, in which Mr. Bush will appeal to shared values to repair the frayed transatlantic relationship. —

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