-Caveat Lector- Blair plans to strike defence deals to heal rift with France http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,882058,00.html Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent Saturday January 25, 2003 The Guardian
Tony Blair is to make a concerted bid to avert a disastrous diplomatic split with France, fuelled by divisions over Iraq, by reaching a wide ranging set of deals covering terrorism and defence at an Anglo-French summit within 10 days. With the US administration hurling insults at the French and Germans, Mr Blair believes a breakdown in relations between the US and Europe would be disastrous. It would also place him in a quandary as he seeks to exploit his special relationship with the US and convince European leaders that Britain's destiny lies in Europe. Mr Blair is planning to strike deals with the French on cooperation over terrorism designed to rival the Anglo-French deal on defence struck at St Malo in 1998. He is also looking at an agreement for EU forces to take over the peacekeeping role in Macedonia once Nato quits at the end of the year. Plans are also being discussed for greater cooperation on military hardware, including making future aircraft carriers compatible for French and British forces. The British government is expected to decide next week whether to place a multi-billion pound order for its next aircraft with BAE Systems or Thales, a French company with extensive British interests. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, expressed sympathy for Thales indirectly last week by asserting that BAE was not a British company, and Thales is seen as the likely winner. The French might reciprocate by agreeing to make its future aircraft carriers compatible for British and other European troops, a move that would hugely extend the meaning of a European defence force. Relations between France and Britain nose-dived in October when President Jacques Chirac and Mr Blair clashed over the future of the common agriculture policy. In a fit of anger at Mr Blair's intemperate attack at an EU summit in Brussels, Mr Chirac cancelled the Anglo-French summit. The revised summit at the start of February comes at an extraordinarily tense moment in Anglo-French relations, and only days after France may clash with the US over Iraq at the security council. The British also remain furious that the French have invited Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, to a conference on Africa in Paris next month. The EU general affairs council is to discuss on Monday whether to grant a special visa for Mr Mugabe to travel France. The French want him to attend the summit partly because they believe he will have influence over the crisis in Congo and more indirectly Ivory Coast. Britain is likely to agree to the visa in return for an agreement that sanctions against Zimbabwe are hardened when the EU decides whether to reconfirm the sanctions in March. 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