Sarkozy: Strong Europe the Solution to World Peace
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for a “strong Europe as a major player” to help “rebuild a more efficient, fair and harmonious world order,” the bbc reported Monday. France is up for its turn in the rotating European Union presidency in July of 2008.
“Europe must progressively affirm itself as a first-rank player for peace and security, in cooperation with the United Nations, the Atlantic Alliance and the African Union,” Sarkozy said yesterday in his first foreign-policy speech as president (EUobserver.com, August 28).
Sarkozy focused on a unified foreign policy for the EU as one way to boost the bloc to a more prominent role in world affairs. He called for European nations to agree on the main global challenges facing them, as well as methods for solving them. The French president also said the EU needed to forge a more unified security strategy, coordinating improved joint military operations, streamlining weapons purchases, and increasing member nations’ payments into the European defense budget.
According to the EUobserver, Sarkozy identified tensions between Islam and the West as the main global crisis, citing Iran as the major cause for concern and saying that Tehran possessing nuclear weapons was unacceptable. He called for more sanctions and new incentives for Iran, depending on whether it continued its nuclear program or agreed to halt it.
“This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran,” he said—an apparent reference to rumored discussion within U.S. government circles of an attack on Iran.
Sarkozy also reaffirmed his opposition to Turkey’s quest for EU membership, and called for more nations to be added to the G-8 and the UN Security Council.
Watch for Europe to indeed become a stronger world power, imposing its will for the rest of the world more forcefully through a stronger foreign policy and a larger, more unified, more lethal military. For more on the European Union, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.