In search of repairs

摘要

"Forgive Russia. Ignore Germany. Punish France." This dictum was apparently coined by Condoleezza Rice at the height of the transatlantic fall-out over Iraq. Next week, as America's secretary of state, she visits Paris, to prepare the ground for President George Bush's European tour later this month. With Paris off his itinerary, yet German and Russian summits on, is this the promised snub to France? Officially, the French and Americans insist that nothing symbolic is intended. Mr Bush dropped in on President Jacques Chirac last June. When Mr Chirac sent reelection congratulations to Mr Bush, in a letter that began with a handwritten "Cher George", the American president invited him to Washington. The French had hoped to fix this visit before Mr Bush's European trip. The difficulty, say the Americans, was finding a date. Yet they plainly had no interest in rolling out the carpet for Mr Chirac ahead of Mr Bush's own "fence-mending" visit. Instead the two presidents will dine together on February 21st on neutral territory: Brussels.