The New York Times

February 9, 2005

Rice Calls on Europe to Join in Building a Safer World

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

PARIS, Feb. 8 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Tuesday for France and Europe to put aside differences with the United States and embark on a joint effort to expand freedom in the Arab world, build a new Iraq and bring about peace in the Middle East.

Reactions to her talk afterward suggested that Ms. Rice had gone far to convince listeners, and perhaps those beyond the hall, of her sincerity, but a certain skepticism remained.

The speech was given to students, political figures and intellectuals at the Institute of Political Studies. Ms. Rice sought to assure her audience that despite past talk about a Europe divided between friends and critics of the United States, the Bush administration wanted to work with a united Europe on common problems using the power of ideas, not force.

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

Ms. Rice delivered her half-hour speech in the subdued tone of a university lecture rather than a political speech. She spoke in an academic lecture hall, before an audience of luminaries in scuffed wooden seats.

Former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who was there, called her talk "the affirmation of a new line in American foreign policy," but added that it might have lacked some realism. "The main aim of America is to see the spread of freedom," he said, "but that is not enough to organize the world. Freedom is not enough to solve all the problems in the world."

More pleased was Ernest-Antoine Seillière, president of Medef, the association of French corporate heads. "This shows a warming of the Franco-American relationship," he said. "Ms. Rice was convincing, the bearer of simple and strong ideas, the Americans' ideas. She really is Mr. Bush's spokesman."

Aides described the speech as the centerpiece of her weeklong tour of Europe and the Middle East, which began Thursday. Its mission was not only to repair the rupture over Iraq and other policies, but in effect to move to higher ground by presenting an array of causes around which the two sides of the Atlantic could rally.

The talk did not outline new policies so much as try to define in a favorable way the current state of affairs and win over the French political class, if not Europeans as a whole. American officials said they were pleased at the publicity it was getting, hoping that this would improve the atmosphere before President Bush goes to Europe this month.

The ideas in the speech were unusually detailed, reflecting a strategy by her team to address deep European anxieties about the United States. Europe, American officials acknowledge, is skeptical about American-led crusades and believes that countries pursue their interests more than their ideals, whether they admit it or not.

Ms. Rice tried to meet that argument head on, reminding the French that they had joined together two generations ago to defeat Communism and declaring that they now must confront Islamic terrorism.

"Today's radical Islamists are swimming against the tide of the human spirit," Ms. Rice said. "They grab headlines with their ruthless brutality, and they can be brutal, but they are dwelling on the outer fringes of a great world religion and are radicals of a special sort. They are in revolt against the future."

After her speech, Ms. Rice met with President Jacques Chirac for what a spokesman said were "cordial and focused" discussions. A State Department official said it was "a very good meeting."

The French spokesman, Jérôme Bonnafont, said President Chirac had told Ms. Rice that France attached "great importance to bilateral cooperation and the trans-Atlantic relationship" and was eager to "push forward the political process" in Iraq but that he wanted American support for the European-led negotiations with Iran.

The speech came at a moment that French and American officials acknowledged was a propitious one for Ms. Rice because of the agreement between Israel and the Palestinians announced in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

After visiting the Middle East, she was able to report to her audience that she had urged Israel as well as the Palestinians to make tough concessions in pursuit of an accord.

That comment seemed directed at allaying the suspicion in Europe that Mr. Bush has been indifferent to the Middle East, in part because of domestic political pressure on him to support Israel uncritically.

"This is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for years to come, and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance," Ms. Rice declared. Appealing for European aid to this process, she said that if Europe and America shared such burdens, it would enable them to "share in the blessings of peace" in the region.

The speech gave scant mention to the issues dividing Europe and the United States, particularly the differences in their approach to Iran, underscored by American doubts about the effectiveness of the European desire to persuade the Tehran government to drop its suspected nuclear weapons program by offering economic and political incentives.

Nor was there mention of the International Criminal Court or the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, both of which Europeans support and the Bush administration opposes, or American opposition to Europe's plan to lift a ban on military exports to China.

The idea, aides said, was not to dwell on whether Europe and America loved each other or whether they were culturally from different planets, but to issue a kind of call to arms.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a time of unprecedented opportunity for our trans-Atlantic partnership," Ms. Rice said. "If we make the pursuit of global freedom our overarching organizing principle for the century, we will achieve historic global advances for justice and prosperity, for liberty and for peace."

"A global agenda requires a global partnership," she added. "So let us multiply our common effort."

In another way, the speech offered as much insight into Ms. Rice's role within the Bush administration as her vision of the American relationship to Europe. An unspoken but unmistakable figure in the shadows of her presentation was Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who in 2003 spoke of an "old Europe" that was critical of American objectives in Iraq and a "new Europe" that was supportive.

In Europe that comment was widely viewed as an attempt to divide the continent for American gain, undercutting what some French diplomats were saying would be an effort to make Europe a "counterweight" against the United States.

In fact, administration officials note, there is a debate among conservatives in the United States and within the Bush administration over whether a united Europe - the European Union now has 25 members and an economy that competes with the United States - is good for American interests. American officials said Ms. Rice was coming down on the side that says European unity is beneficial to Americans.

"The United States, above all, welcomes the growing unity of Europe," Ms. Rice declared. "America has everything to gain from having a stronger Europe as a partner in building a safer and better world."

Elaine Sciolino contributing reporting for this article.


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