The United States President, George Bush, and Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on Wednesday put an end to an era of bitterness over Iraq when they pledged to work together on a range of international issues including climate change and Iran.
During his first visit to Germany since the Iraq war, Bush on Wednesday held talks with Schröder in the picturesque Roman garrison town of Mainz on the banks of the Rhine.
Speaking after the meeting Bush praised Germany’s ”vital” contribution to training Iraqi policeman. He said he ”fully understood” Schröder’s ”limitations” — his refusal to send troops to Iraq.
Schröder said Germany and the US had finally buried their differences. ”Nobody wants to conceal that we had different opinions … but that is the past,” he said.
Speaking in Mainz’s baroque electoral palace, as snow fell outside, Bush appeared to rule out the possibility of an immediate pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He stressed instead that ”diplomacy was just beginning” with steps being taken by Britain, France and Germany.
”Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts and I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. We will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions,” he said.
The Americans and Europeans were now discussing ”tactics” over Tehran, he added, with ”all options on the table”. He went on: ”The reason we are having these discussions is because they [the Iranians] were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn’t enrich uranium.”
Schröder said Germany and the US were ”fully congruous” on Iran. ”We absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of nuclear weapon, full stop,” he said.
Schröder’s personal relationship with Bush never really recovered after the chancellor criticised in late 2002 the US’s decision to invade Iraq. On Wednesday, however, both men went out of their way to sound conciliatory. A relaxed Bush repeatedly referred to ”my friend, Gerhard”, later describing them both as ”two old guys”.
The chancellor, meanwhile, pledged that the US and Germany would now work together closely on climate change, despite the fact the Bush administration had failed to sign up to the Kyoto treaty. They would ”deepen cooperation” on energy-saving technologies, he said.
Bush also warned Syria to remove its troops and ”secret services” from Lebanon. There was no mention on Wednesday of trickier themes such as the EU’s proposal to lift the arms embargo to China, which Washington strongly rejects.
Bush and Schröder also glossed over the chancellor’s recent remarks that Nato needed reform. ”We are not going to emphasise where we don’t agree,” Schröder declared bluntly.
Bush’s eight-hour visit to Germany prompted 5 000 demonstrators to converge in swirling snow close to the palace, which had been sealed off by police.
Protesters from an alliance called ”Not welcome Mr Bush” had built a model tank from wood and mounted it on a truck, and a float showing an Iraqi prisoner being beaten up in Abu Ghraib prison. Others hung banners from windows declaring: ”Go home Mr Bush” and ”Peace”.
”I cannot understand how someone can say they are acting in God’s will and then wage war. It’s perverse,” said Margret Koehler-Gutch, a protester.
Bush remains deeply unpopular in Germany, not just among young people or those on the left, but across all social classes. After a lunch with Schröder and prominent Germans, including the country’s most famous talkshow host, Bush yesterday on Wednesday a museum dedicated to Mainz’s best-known son, the inventor of printing Johannes Gutenberg, and inspected one of Gutenberg’s original 15th-century bibles.
He then visited several thousand American troops in nearby Wiesbaden before flying to Bratislava on Wednesday night for talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Although there were no substantive new announcements, observers said there was little doubt that German-American relations had entered a new, if tentative, era.
”Bush and Schröder are both politicians who place great emphasis on personal relationships. They are now setting about trying to create one,” said Gary Smith, the director of the Berlin-based American Academy.
The two leaders are likely to meet at least three times over the next few months, with sources suggesting that a second visit to Germany by Bush is also on the cards.
”Most locals are totally pissed off with his visit. If it were anyone else it would have been OK,” said Marcelo Crescenti from Mainz.
But he admitted: ”Germans haven’t really liked any American president since JFK.” – Guardian Unlimited