Rice urges unity in Europe

PARIS — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Europeans yesterday to "turn away from the disagreements" of the past and open a "new chapter" in the trans-Atlantic alliance, a major overture to end two years of tension with key U.S. allies over the Iraq war.

Speaking in the country that led international opposition to the Iraq war, Rice called for a new era of cooperation in promoting freedom and prosperity, particularly in the Middle East.

"America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda, and Europe must stand ready to work with America," she said in a speech that won praise from French government leaders but was received skeptically by some members of her audience.

"After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements but by our new achievements," she told about 500 students, politicians and opinion leaders at the Institute for the Study of Politics.

U.S. officials said Rice deliberately chose to speak in Paris, which some U.S. officials jokingly called "the belly of the beast." Aides billed the speech as the centerpiece of her first trip abroad as the United States' top diplomat.

Rice sought to signal an end to a debate inside the Bush administration over whether a united Europe — with its own regional government, economic ties and security force — is a global rival. U.S. officials have differed over the implications of Europe as a growing power, a debate that deepened when some European powers, notably France and Germany, balked at endorsing the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Her message was that Washington now views Europe as a partner with a common global agenda.

"America has everything to gain from having a stronger Europe as a partner in building a safer and better world," Rice said. "So let each of us bring to the table ideas, experience and resources and let us discuss and decide — together — how to best employ them for democratic change."

Rice and French officials have been eager to mend the troubled relationship in advance of a trip that President Bush will make to Europe this month, which will include a dinner with French President Jacques Chirac in Brussels.

The French government was largely receptive to her fence-mending speech. At a news conference with Rice after her speech, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said her visit would "start in a new way this very old relationship," echoing Rice's language about a "new chapter."

Rice also met with Chirac yesterday. According to a spokesman at the Elysee Palace, the president told her that "France shares the resolve to support the political process that got under way with the elections" in Iraq "and to promote that country's integrity and stability."

Some students in the audience cast doubt on whether Rice would change attitudes among a French public that still largely distrusts U.S. foreign-policy aims.

"There was nothing new in it for me," said Marie Reynard, 21, an international-relations student. "Going to impose democracy overseas is not something we are for. I'm afraid America is going to go into Iran — and that's not something France is going to accept."

Rice's words suggested that the United States is abandoning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's idea of an "old" and "new" Europe — countries with long-standing ties that opposed the Iraq war, such as France and Germany, and other countries, including former communist nations to the east, that supported it.

As Bush's national-security adviser, Rice reportedly called for a policy in early 2003 to "forgive Russia, ignore Germany and punish France" after those three countries blocked a U.N. resolution allowing the use of force against Iraq.

Without mentioning Iraq specifically, Rice acknowledged that the United States and unnamed European countries have had serious disagreements. But she said a new spirit of cooperation is particularly crucial now because the "fair wind of freedom is at our back."

She made no mention of other issues that continue to divide the two sides, such as the Kyoto protocol on global warming, a strategy for dealing with Iran's nuclear program, and use of the International Criminal Court, a world body aimed at bringing war criminals to justice.

Reflecting President Bush's inaugural speech, the singular theme of Rice's address was freedom, the common history of Europe and America in creating modern democracy, and their future goal of fostering freedom — a word she used more than two dozen times in her half-hour speech and several more times in answers to questions from the audience.

Some people in the audience said they heard only generalities, without specifics for how to overcome continuing differences.

"It was strange because the basic line, apart from freedom and liberty, was let's let bygones be bygones," said Francois Heisbourg, a military and defense expert who had been invited to meet Rice at a small gathering this morning. "Being against freedom and liberty is like being against motherhood and apple pie."