Sarkozy: US cannot run the world alone
Delivering some self-styled “home truths” to his hosts, Sarkozy used a visit to New York to query the dollar’s dominance and push for a tightening of economic regulations.
Saying “there is no single country in the 21st century that can run the world alone,” he urged the US to join Europe in “inventing the rules for the economy of tomorrow.”
Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni, said he would discuss with Obama ways to stabilise commodities markets and to define “a new international monetary order.”
“The dollar is not the only currency in the world,” he said.
The talks between the US president and his French counterpart were also expected to focus on foreign policy issues such as the war in Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear drive.
Obama renewed a US request to Sarkozy to send more French military and police trainers to Afghanistan and discussed his new push for nuclear disarmament.
One bone of contention discussed is a huge US military contract to supply 179 tanker planes. France has accused Washington of protectionism by seeking to favour Boeing over Europe’s Airbus.
Sarkozy has generally worked hard to rebuild ties with Washington, but his comments to Columbia University students recalled a more prickly past.
Reiterating traditional European scepticism of US economic free markets, he said: “We need the great American people to understand that the absence of rules kills liberty.”
With his popularity diving at home and his party reeling from defeat in regional elections, the US visit is seen as a chance for Sarkozy to regain momentum.
Obama and his wife Michelle welcomed the French leader and glamorous first lady Bruni to a private evening dinner in the White House. The extended honour is seen as a fence-mending exercise after Obama bowed out of a European summit and reports of bad chemistry between the two leaders.
While he was careful to praise Obama, Sarkozy appeared to have a less upbeat view of ordinary US citizens, pleading with them “not to lag behind” their president on financial regulations, defence and the environment.
Even his congratulations for Obama’s hard-fought victory in pushing health care reform through Congress came laced with criticism.
“Welcome to the club of countries that does not dump its sick people.
“But if you want me to be sincere, seen from Europe, when we see the US debate on health care reform, we find it hard to believe.”
France, he noted, had “resolved” the health care problem half a century ago.
In New York, Sarkozy also met UN chief Ban Ki-moon and discussed a planned aid conference on Haiti, international climate change talks and reform of the UN Security Council.
