Leaders hope for 'fresh beginning' in transatlantic relations

Improving transatlantic ties between Europe and the US was a key issue for many leaders today whomever US voters send to the White House.

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said if US President George Bush does turn out to be the winner, it is an opportunity for him to rebuild bridges, both within the US and abroad.

“Under Bush, tension has developed between the US and Europe,” Mr Bondevik said. “Assuming he does win, I hope he will try to build bridges over that gap.”

Prime Minister Goeran Persson of Sweden said that if Mr Bush won a second term, he didn’t anticipate any major changes in foreign policy.

“Sweden and Europe will continue to criticise Bush the same way as earlier,” Mr Persson said. “But I do not believe that he will be more willing to listen to it during the second period than during the first.”

Norway and Sweden did not back the invasion of Iraq, which created a rift between the US and many of its allies in Europe.

The tone was slightly more optimistic in neighbouring Denmark, a staunch US ally both politically and militarily.

Bush “will stretch his hand out to stronger international cooperation both within the United Nations and the European partners and allies”, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

“We need a fresh start for the transatlantic partnership,” he told reporters in the Danish capital.

A re-elected Mr Bush would be “good news” for Poland, President Aleksander Kwasniewski said todayd.

“Regarding Poland’s interests, further cooperation with George W Bush is good news,” Mr Kwasniewski said.

“In the campaign, he did not need any forced reminders to stress Poland’s role in the anti-terrorist coalition.” Mr Kwasniewski criticised Democratic challenger John Kerry last month for supposedly making little of Poland’s contribution of troops in Iraq during the first presidential debate.

A senior German official said he hoped President Bush would seize the chance for a “new beginning” in relations with Europe if re-elected,

German-US ties were strained by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s vehement opposition to last year’s war in Iraq, although the two governments have since moved to repair relations.

“I hope that a re-elected President Bush would use the chance offered by his re-election for a new beginning in European-American and German-American relations,” Karsten Voigt, the Foreign Ministry’s top official for relations with Washington, said.

He added that Mr Bush would do well to “approach the Europeans … and say, let us sit down and talk about where we have common interests”.