Merkel stresses friendship with France

PARIS - A new era in German politics began yesterday with a pointed statement on the importance of an old friendship.

On her first full day in office, the new German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, chose to travel to Paris to have lunch - and to be seen shaking, and kissing, hands with - President Jacques Chirac.

Later, she moved on to Brussels to see the Belgian prime minister and the top brass of Nato and the European Commission.

Tony Blair's turn - both as British prime minister and current EU council president - will come today.

This is not necessarily a snub, as Mrs Merkel had little choice but to visit France first. Anything else would have seemed a deliberate repudiation of the Franco-German alliance which has been at the core of the domestic, not just foreign politics, of both countries for more than half a century.

All the same, the symbolism of Mrs Merkel's Paris visit, on her first morning at work, was important.

Some commentators have suggested that she is less keen than her predecessors on a close partnership with France.

In opposition she had criticised the informal, Berlin-Moscow-Paris triple alliance, created in 2003 to oppose the American-British war in Iraq.

Until last week, there were jitters in Paris that Mrs Merkel might actually - horror of horrors - choose to visit London first.

There was a tone of relief in French press commentary yesterday and even in President Chirac's declaration that he was very "grateful" for "the sign of esteem and honour" that she has "bestowed" on France by coming to Paris on her first working day.

After lunch with Mrs Merkel at the Elysee Palace, Chirac said that the European Union could only function if there was a "truly solid Franco-German axis".

He said that Paris and the new coalition team in Berlin would work to create a "political and social Europe" - in other words an EU which was not just an open market.

Mrs Merkel said that Chirac's remarks "matched her own deepest convictions".

She also confirmed that she planned to continue the pattern of regular meetings between the French and German leaders, and cabinets, begun by M. Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Otherwise, at her brief, joint press conference with President Chirac, Mrs Merkel swatted away all awkward questions.

She said that she and President Chirac had discussed the future of the EU budget and the future of the British rebate but declined to comment further.

"It would be premature today to make conclusive comments on proposals from the British presidency (of the EU) that have not yet been made," Mrs Merkel said.

On the question of future Turkish membership of the EU, she was equally vague.

"A close strategic connection of Turkey to Europe is important," she said, but negotiations would be a "long process".

"We will shape it - and I have told the Turkish foreign minister this - in a way that is mutually beneficial to our countries and the European Union," she explained.

How well Chancellor Merkel and President Chirac will get on in the long term is open to question.

The new chancellor is said to have forged a close relationship with Chirac's rival and former protege, the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Both believe that the "continental" European economic and social model must be reformed to compete in the global markets of the 21st century.

Instead President Chirac and his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, talk of making only marginal adjustments to keep the French "model" intact.

On Europe, German officials say that Mrs Merkel accepts the importance of the relationship with France but wants also to reach out to smaller EU nations, and especially the new members from the former Soviet bloc.

She is expected - continuing her symbolic tourism - to travel to Warsaw tomorrow.

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