French president Nicolas Sarkozy made ‘born in the same womb comparisons’ on Franco-British brotherhood during his speech to the British parliament by relating the two democracies to lands of freedom, lands of justice and lands of solidarity. He went overboard by saying that both the countries had 15000 troops abroad with various missions and shared equal number of colonies.
Earlier in the day, he was greeted by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle for his two-day sojourn in Britain. He further urged Britain to work with France to create a stronger Europe and a “new globalisation” built on freedom, equity and responsibility. He surprised the critics in his speech, when he said that the term “Nation” is irrelevant in today’s world, by forgetting the fact of France’s opposition to the EU entry of countries including Turkey.
Through this visit, France and Britain are expected to call for greater transparency in financial markets, in an effort to tackle the global credit crunch. Sarkozy and British prime minister, Brown are understood to co-operate to bring confidence in financial markets which is being severely hit by non-performing loans of banks, that some estimates put as high as $600 billion. Banks have written down more than $125 billion of assets due to the credit crisis triggered by sub-prime mortgages in the United States. But Sarkozy’s formula to stabilize the slide in the dollar which has affected European exports was not well received by Britain, and it prefers the markets to take its own course.
Relations between Britain and France were strained when Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A French president is visiting Britain after a gap of 12 years and expected to mould closer ties from the standpoint of present global economic situation.
Both the countries will co-operate each other on new generation of power stations and several other viable projects. Mr Sarkozy will hold talks with Gordon Brown, on issues including nuclear power, climate change, further curbs on illegal immigration, strengthening of European defense policy and reforms on international trade.