President Jacques Chirac said Friday there was "true friendship" between France and Britain on the second and final day of a state visit to mark 100 years of the Entente Cordiale that ended centuries of rivalry between the two European powers.
Chirac nevertheless used the visit to stress differences over the invasion of Iraq in what The Times called a display of "bad manners."
Speaking to students at Oxford University, Chirac said France and Britain had "never worked in closer cooperation" than in the current fight against terrorism.
He also said the history and values shared by Europe and America had forged a link so strong that it "cannot be challenged by anybody."
But, in a clear attack on the US and its main ally Britain, he came out against military intervention without the support of the United Nations.
"It's not for any given country to consider that a situation is open to stepping in and interfering. It's up to the international community to do so, in particular the UN which alone has the authority to interfere," he said.
Chirac called for UN reform, saying Germany, Japan and India should be allowed to become permanent members of the Security Council.
Earlier he laid a wreath at the tomb of King Edward VII, the British monarch in power when the entente cordiale was signed on April 8, 1904.
Following talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday, Chirac said the two countries were in agreement on the need for a peaceful and stable Iraq.
And he stressed that Britain and France were in agreement on "manifold areas," apart from their differences over Iraq.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS