United States President George Bush arrived in Germany Wednesday to patch up relations after the deep rift over the Iraq war and chart a way forward on thorny issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and Nato’s future.
After a very public and cordial reconciliation in Brussels with French President Jacques Chirac, another fierce foe of the conflict, Bush was pursuing a whirlwind five-day courtship of Europe with a day-long visit to Germany.
Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who had a highly personal split over Iraq, were set to discuss Nato and European Union efforts to help build democracy in Iraq following January 30 elections, as well as European diplomacy to defuse tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
While he backs British, French and German diplomatic overtures to Iran, Bush is increasingly impatient with the Islamic republic’s response — and he has repeatedly refused to rule out the use of force.
”This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous,” Bush said at a press conference following his summit with EU leaders.
But he added: ”Having said that, all options are on the table.”
With the US and Europe eager to move past Iraq, Schroeder made the unusual gesture of meeting Bush on the tarmac as he disembarked from Air Force One, the presidential jet, at Frankfurt’s Rhein-Main airport.
They then travelled to the nearby city of Mainz, where they reviewed German and US troops who had served in Afghanistan.
Officials enforced a security lockdown for Bush and his wife Laura — in Germany since Tuesday — as thousands of protesters planned another day of demonstrations in many German cities to protest US policy in Iraq.
Schroeder and Bush were barely on speaking terms after the chancellor stridently opposed the March 2003 war in Iraq.
But Schroeder had earlier used the columns of Germany’s top-selling daily on Wednesday to say: ”There are occasional differences over issues which is completely normal in a close partnership.”
”We are allies and partners in the fight against terrorism, against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, against poverty and epidemics such as Aids,” Schroeder wrote in his article for the Bild newspaper.
Germany provides the bulk of troops within the Nato-run, 8 300-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which was deployed to provide security after the overthrow of the Taliban regime by US army forces.
The choice of Mainz — hometown of printing-press inventor Johannes Gutenberg — was also loaded with symbolism: Bush’s father went there in 1989 to declare that the United States and Germany were ”partners in leadership”.
The elder president Bush also called for the Berlin Wall to be torn down, and forecast the spread of democracy throughout eastern Europe — much as his son now proclaims the Middle East ready to embrace rule by its people.
During his stay on Wednesday, Bush was also to hold a roundtable discussion with young German leaders, then visit the Gutenberg museum, before leaving Mainz for nearby Wiesbaden to address US soldiers.
Bush wraps up his trip to Europe — the first overseas destination of his second term — by meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava.
German Defence Minister Peter Struck said Schroeder would discuss with Bush his call for Nato reform, made at a security conference in Munich earlier this month.
Schroeder has urged the European Union and the United States to set up a panel of independent senior officials to analyze new ways to boost transatlantic ties.
The proposal got a cool reception in Washington, with Bush saying he still views Nato as the premier forum for transatlantic security. ‒ Sapa-AFP