Today's Date:

“Thank you very much Bill and I did not have to be here, in Florida, to see once more that the United States is a vibrant democracy! I wish all the best to all those who are candidates for different positions for the university.

It is for me a privilege to have the opportunity to have a candid discussion about what happened in our relations because, as Bill said, yes, we have been friends and allies for more than 200 years, so, how come we had different views about Iraq?

Let me start may be with a personal experience. On 9/11, I was in New York and I saw from my office, on the 24th floor of the building, the destruction of the twin towers. And this tragedy will remain in my heart for the rest of my days. And at that moment, I felt that I was an American, and that was the view all over the world. The main daily in France, Le Monde, said, and that was a big title, "We are all Americans "! And President Chirac was the first to come to Washington and New York, on the 18th and 19th of September, to express our solidarity with the American people, with the New Yorkers. And I am full of admiration for the New Yorkers, the way they reacted with dignity, courage, solidarity … and the same is true of course for all the American people!

During that month of September, I was the president of the Security Council of the United Nations and of course we could not have any contact with Paris, or Washington or anybody…Because there was no more folk working during that day ! So, as the President of the Security Council, I asked myself and I asked my assistant " What can we do to express our solidarity ? ". What we did is, in fact, that we changed the international law. We proposed, the day after, on the 12th of September, the moment the doors of the UN building reopened, to our colleagues in the Security Council, the adoption of a resolution which would change indeed the law, international law, on two important issues. We proposed that such an act of international terror should be qualified as an act of war, which paved the way for self-defence by the State attacked. Secondly, we proposed that this right of self-defence should be targeted not only against the terrorist networks, those who committed the acts, but also against the States, which offer hospitality, train, equip, finance the terrorist networks. And this resolution was adopted. It shows that, from time to time, the Security Council can work quite efficiently, rapidly, and unanimously! And I proposed to my colleagues that, for the first time in UN history, we would not adopt this resolution by raising our hands but by standing, standing in respect for the American people and expressing our solidarity with the American people. This resolution paved the way to the war in Afghanistan. France participated fully in this war with 5000 troops, the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, and 100 planes. And today, we still maintain troops in Kabul. It is a NATO operation and a French general will be in charge of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, and we have special forces fighting side by side with your forces on the border with Pakistan. And, as you know, there are a lot of fighting now on this border because we are trying together to get important elements and key leaders of Al Qaeda. So we were together and we still are together in Afghanistan. How come we were not together in Iraq?

It started well. It started on the 12th of September 2002, when President Bush came to the General Assembly of the United Nations and he proposed to the whole world that we would work together to disarm Saddam Hussein from all the possible weapons of mass destruction that he could have. If possible peacefully through the UN inspections, if not by the use of force. Everybody agreed on that goal. And then, we started a negotiation. I was the French negotiator. It lasted 8 weeks and we agreed on the way forward. It became resolution 1441, which was adopted unanimously again by the Security Council. So far so good, we are still together. So, what happened? What happened is that, first, we deployed the inspectors in Iraq and they started doing a good job, as good professionals. They were deployed years before, between 1981 and 1988. Then they had to withdraw because of Saddam Hussein. And thanks to President Bush, they were back to the job of disarming Iraq. And this time with the full backing of the whole international community. But in parallel, American troops were deployed around Iraq. It was a good idea because it showed to Saddam Hussein that this time it was serious, serious business… He had to cooperate fully and he did cooperate fully. He started with passive cooperation, opening the doors to the inspectors, of his palaces, training centers and so on. But he cooperated more and more actively, and you have seen on your screens the destruction for instance of missiles Al Samoud II, at the request of the UN inspectors. And these destructions were carried by the Iraqi army. But you deployed not the number of troops necessary to send a strong message to Saddam Hussein. You deployed also the troops necessary to fight and win a war! And, the moment the 300 000 troops were deployed, then we had a real difficulty in the Security Council, because a minority, the US, the UK, Spain said " Well, we have to stop the inspections and now we have to launch the war and win the war ". And I guess that, for President Bush, and at that time I was in Washington as the French Ambassador in the US, it was a question of credibility. Credibility of the president vis à vis the American people and credibility of the US vis à vis the world. We have American troops fully deployed, ready for a war, and waiting, waiting and waiting…The answer in Washington was No. But the mood for the majority, 11 out of 15 members of the Security Council, was: There is no need to rush to have a war because, as we saw it in the Security Council, there is no imminent threat. Saddam Hussein is in his box. The inspectors are in the box. They are everywhere, checking everything! So there is no imminent threat and we did not see any connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. So we were, as a majority of members of the Security Council, in favor of continuing the inspections until the day we would reach conclusions or any facts, or there would be a provocation by Saddam Hussein.

This is past! Now, what is important today is to work together in Iraq, because, what is at stake today in Iraq his huge. Not only the future of the Iraqi people, not only the future of the whole Middle East, but even more important for us, what is at stake in Iraq is the future of the relations between the Muslim world and the West, that is what is at stake today in Iraq and we have together to make Iraq a success story ! Together, because if it is not a success then you will feel the consequences in the United States but even more in Europe, in France, with a population of 5 to 6 million Muslims who are very sensitive to what is happening in the Middle East. So, yes, indeed, we will work together to make Iraq a success story!

I would like to say now a few words about Europe, because time and again I see in the media that President Chirac, Chancellor Schröder want to build the European Union as a counterweight to the United States, and frankly that is not what we want to achieve in Europe. You have to remember how it started. The European Union started, just after the second World War. The European history is made of wars, between the French and the Germans, the French and the British, between the French and the Italian, between the French and the Spanish, between the Spanish and the Portuguese, and so on and so forth … After two world wars which were triggered by animosity between the French and the Germans, we considered that it was time to build our common destiny together and peacefully, that is, for the first time in history, to unite the European peoples peacefully. We have been united in the past. The Romans united us but by military means. Napoleon united us but through war. Hitler united, for a few years, the Europeans but through war. For the first time in history, we want to build a common destiny for all European peoples, through peaceful means, that is what we want to achieve!

We started in the 50’s by putting together our steel and coal industries. Why ? Because guns are made through coal and steel. Then we decided to put together our nuclear industries because nuclear bombs could be built through these industries. Then it was a success and we said, Why not building a common market? And it was amazing success story. And during all these years, we were slowly expanding the European Union from a nucleus of 6 countries – France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands- to 9, 10, 12, 15 and on May 1st, we will add 10 newcomers, and this is again another miracle! For the first time, we will have, as full members of the European Union, countries which were, only 15 years ago, members of the Soviet bloc: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and even more fascinating for us, three countries which were only 15 years ago part of the soviet Union, the three Baltic States. So for us, May 1st will be Historic, with a big H.

But in the meantime, we are continuing our construction of this common future. After the common market, we discovered that we needed a common currency, the Euro, not to compete with the dollar but simply because when you have a common market you need a common currency. Just think what will be the situation of the United States if you had one currency for Florida and Texas, one for California and one for the Great Lakes region… it would not work! We needed the Euro and now we have in Europe, 300 millions of European with, in their pockets the Euro! It is another miracle ! We made it, we are very proud of it, but basically we needed it because it was an economic necessity.

And now we are preparing our constitution. We are not where you where in Philadelphia in 1787. You started from scratch, with one language, English, with a common vision about the future and in a way no past. We have a lot of past. Two thousand years of history for France, the UK, Spain, Italy and so on. As some say, we are old, "Old Europe" and it is a handicap because we have different traditions, legal traditions. Some countries have no constitution: the UK. France had 21 constitutions. We have different languages, more than two dozen. We have hopefully a common vision of our future and that is why probably we will succeed in adopting, in the coming months, this constitution. It will make a big difference for the European because we have signed a number of treaties and nobody understand how it works. With the new constitution, everybody will understand how it works, who is doing what, and you will understand who is in charge. Now, every six months, each semester, we have a new presidency. Now it is Ireland . Who knows who will come next ? Who knows which was the previous presidency? If we adopt the constitution, we will have for five years a President of the European Union and a Foreign Minister with real powers, and it will make a real difference for us but also for the transatlantic relations.

I consider personally that Europe is at the same time the indispensable but invisible partner of the United States. Madeleine Albright used to say "America is the indispensable nation". Fine, we are your indispensable partner, but for the time being, we are invisible. But France is quite visible …Indeed, may be too much. Germany is quite visible. The UK is of course very visible, Italy, Spain but the Europe Union as such is quite invisible. At the same time, you have to recognize that we are by far your main partner. Two thirds of the foreign direct investment in this country comes from Europe and it is true the other way round. It represents 4 millions American jobs. If you need troops, where do you find these troops to go to the Balkan, to Afghanistan, to Iran, to Africa, to Haiti?… In Europe. Not in China, or Russia, or Brazil or India… In Europe. So, yes, please recognize that Europe is your main friend and ally and we don’t want to build Europe as a counterweight, but in this dangerous world, we consider that our Atlantic alliance needs two strong pillars, the US of course and the EU. We share the same values. If we work together nothing is impossible. If EU and the US are divided then everything is possible against our common values, democracy and market economy.

I would like to conclude with some words about the French-American relations. You mentioned, Bill, that, yes, we were allies from the very first day of your war for independence. They were as many French soldiers in Yorktown as they were American soldiers. Two years later, Napoleon signed the Louisiana Purchase with Jefferson, the best deal in American history. For 50 millions dollars, you bought all the territories West of the Mississippi river. It was French territories. 20 American states were born from this structure and it was an other move to help the US emerge as a strong player, a world player, a true ally and friend for France. And we wanted it that way because we shared exactly the same values, the values of the Enlightenment. We were born together as democracies, you as an independent state and we, through the Revolution, as a modern democracy. We share the same values : democracy, liberty, freedom, market economy. We are together now in Iraq. I mentioned Afghanistan where we fight together, we are together in the Balkans, we are together in Africa, we are together in Haiti today. But more important, we are together to confront the threats of this 21st century, that are terrorism and the spread of arms of mass destruction. We share our intelligence, our capacities, we share everything to eradicate these curses of the new century. We want to express in France our gratitude to the American people. I mentioned that, yes, we were present at Yorktown but, the US saved France twice last century, at the end of the first World War and at the end at the second World War. And next June, on the 6th of June, we will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day and, believe me, it will be a very moving moment for you and for us ! President Bush will come to Paris and go to Normandy with President Chirac, and they will be together on the beaches of Normandy, in the cemeteries where so many American heroes are buried. They sacrificed their lives for freedom, liberty of France and all of Europe. And all the French people, on that day, will say, in one voice, "American friends, we will never forget. Thank you America".

Thank you./.