United States President George Bush on Tuesday thanked Nato leaders for helping to train Iraqi security forces, but made clear that plans to lift a European arms embargo on China still trouble transatlantic ties.
”There is deep concern in our country that a transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China, which would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan,” he said ahead of an US-European Union summit in Brussels.
Bush, in Belgium on a whirlwind campaign to repair US-Europe relations ripped apart by the Iraq war, said he has conveyed that message behind closed doors at a Nato summit in Brussels and heard back that the EU will work to soothe Washington’s worries.
”They’ll try to develop a plan that will ease concerns,” the US president said after a Nato summit, at a press conference with Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. ”Now, whether they can or not, we’ll see.”
Bush did not mention another bone of contention, European-led diplomacy to defuse fears that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, although he has expressed mounting impatience at Tehran’s response and refused to rule out the use of force.
The US president, who described his mission in Europe as ”a listening tour” in which he heard allies’ concerns, unapologetically defended the March 2003 invasion of Iraq even as he thanked Nato for taking on the ”important mission” of training Iraqi security forces.
”And we liberated Iraq. And that decision has been made, it’s over with and now it is time to unify for the sake of peace,” he said. ”The key now is to put that behind us and to focus on helping the new democracy succeed.”
Nato leaders confirmed that all 26 of their member countries ”are contributing” in some way to an alliance training mission in Iraq — even France, which had opposed any involvement in the mission.
”Nato is providing an officer training mission which is vital,” said Bush, who has made the training of Iraqi security forces a precondition for withdrawing the roughly 140 000 US soldiers in Iraq.
Nato agreed to launch the training mission last year to help Iraqi security forces, but has struggled to mount the operation, notably amid reluctance by countries opposed to the war to get involved on the ground.
Germany is providing training to Iraqi officers in the United Arab Emirates, and France has offered to train police in Qatar, although it has been unclear whether this counts as part of the Nato mission.
”Every contribution matters. Twenty-six nations sitting around that table said it’s important for Nato to be involved in Iraq. That’s a strong statement,” said Bush.
”You know, it’s the Iraqi government’s first priority, training the Iraqi security forces so that their dependence on others and be less than it is at the moment,” said Scheffer.
Meetings with leaders
In addition to attending the Nato summit, Bush met with a wave of world leaders, starting with a breakfast with his staunchest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who expressed optimism about transatlantic ties.
”Whatever the differences in the international community have been over the past couple of years, I think we have a really solid basis now for going forward in a unified way.”
Bush also met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and began his talks at Nato headquarters with a face-to-face meeting with new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
”We welcomed President Yushchenko” and told him that Nato’s ”door is open” but that he ”must embrace democratic institutions”, said Bush. ”And Nato wants to help, and we pledge to help.”
On Monday, Bush expressed his worries about arms sales to China as he staged a very cordial reconciliation with French President Jacques Chirac — who led global opposition to the war in Iraq.
At issue is the EU’s plan to end a ban on exports of military hardware imposed on China in 1989 to protest the brutal suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement.
Chirac later called for the lifting of a European embargo on arms sales to China, but said the US and Europe should work together to ensure the conditions are right.
Bush was to meet later with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency.
Bush was to leave Brussels early on Wednesday to go patch up relations with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Mainz, then head on to the Slovak capital, Bratislava, for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. — Sapa-AFP