In this issue:

Chirac Invites Mubarak to G-8 Summit

Chancellor Schroeder in Vietnam

British Development Minister Clare Short Resigns from Blair's Cabinet

German Christian Democrat Koch Tours U.S., Meets with Bush

Columnist William Pfaff Blasts Straussians

Pope Celebrates 83rd Birthday, Calls for UN To Lead Iraq Reconstruction

From Volume 2, Issue Number 20 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published May 20, 2003

Western European News Digest

Chirac Invites Mubarak to G-8 Summit

French President Jacques Chirac has invited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to take part in the Group of 8 summit of industrialized countries in Evian, France on June 1-3, the Elysée Palace announced May 13. Chirac looks forward to Mubarak's visit, so that he can present Egypt's position, especially concerning African development through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

China, India, Brazil, and Mexico have also been invited. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, as head of the Non-Aligned Movement, and King Mohammad VI of Morocco, as head of the Group of 77 Developing Nations, will also attend.

Nearly 80% of the world's population will have representatives at the summit in Evian. Not only will the G-7 nations be there (the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, and Germany)—with Russia admitted to sit at the side table for one hour a day to make it G-8—but the biggest nations of the developing sector will also be there, for the first-ever "informal" North-South dialogue summit at the G-8.

President Hu Jintao of China, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee of India, Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Vicente Fox of Mexico, will be in Evian. In addition, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia will also represent the Non-Aligned Movement, and Moroccan King Mohammed VI will be there as head of the Group of 77 developing nations. Pascal Couchepin, President of Switzerland, will also attend.

Chancellor Schroeder in Vietnam

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder laid a wreath at the State Tomb of Ho Chi Minh, the father of post-colonial Vietnam. In Hanoi last week. Schroeder was in Vietnam on May 15 as the fourth station on his Asia tour, following stops in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

In a speech at the Technical University of Hanoi, Schroeder emphatically endorsed the United Nations and the priority of international law in global relations: "There is only one system of international law, and that is the Charter of the United Nations." In the same speech, Schroeder also addressed the fact that the present good and close relations with Vietnam are based on the "intense exchange between Vietnam and the former GDR (East Germany)." The fact that before 1990, more than 7,000 Vietnamese scientists and academicians were trained at East German universities, is a capital that should be made use of, in the development of relations between the reunified Germany and Vietnam.

The German Chancellor furthermore announced that in respect to promoting economic relations, and German assistance in the reconstruction and modernization of Vietnam's economy, the Dresden Technical University will establish a special department at Hanoi Technical University that will enable young Vietnamese to acquire a full German-standard degree in machine-building and electrotech studies.

British Development Minister Clare Short Resigns from Blair's Cabinet

British Development Minister Clare Short has resigned from Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet, denouncing the "shameful" proposal to the UN on occupation/reconstruction. As Development Minister, she was supposed to oversee Britain's role in reconstructing Iraq. But in resigning, she revealed that Blair had secretly consulted with the Bush Administration to draft a proposal to the UN Security Council, behind the back of his own ministers.

Short told the House of Commons that the Blair and Bush governments are colluding "in trying to bully the Security Council into a resolution that gives the coalition the power to establish an Iraqi government and control the use of oil" with "only a minor role for the UN."

Earlier, as the invasion of Iraq loomed, she had threatened to resign, but had decided to stay in the Blair Cabinet. (In March, Robin Cook did quit his Cabinet post as Labour Party parliamentary leader.)

Blair immediately replaced Short with Valerie Amos, a Guyana-born woman who has promoted New Labour's Third Way politics.

German Christian Democrat Koch Tours U.S., Meets with Bush

With Roland Koch, another prominent German Christian Democrat toured the U.S. last week—and President Bush managed to find time to meet with him, although he has insisted he has no time to meet with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, not even at the upcoming G-8 meeting in Evian, France.

Koch, the Governor of Hesse, also met Vice President Cheney, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and the President's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

Koch delivered a speech at Georgetown CSIS on the German view on globalization issues, and then travelled to Wisconsin, Hesse's partner state. He returned to Germany on May 16.

His Washington visit is important, because Koch is said to be preparing for a national political career—not necessarily on the side of the present (and contested) CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel, but perhaps, if he gets the chance, as a replacement for the 2006 national elections.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell, arrived in Berlin May 15 and met May 16 with Chancellor Schroeder, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, and CDU opposition leader Angela Merkel.

After their meeting, Schroeder and Powell held a press conference, during which the U.S. diplomat spoke of good and stable relations, and said that he was "entirely satisfied" with what his German host had told him. Schroeder hinted that they had talked about options of expanding the peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan "beyond Kabul," and he also hinted that both sides were moving toward each other to achieve a compromise at the UN Security Council "to get the sanctions lifted as soon as possible for the benefit of the Iraqi people."

It was not clear whether Schroeder had moved away from his statement in Hanoi earlier, when he said that Germany would support an early lifting of sanctions if it "complied with our principles."

As far as the Afghanistan issue was concerned, Schroeder's official spokesman, Thomas Steg, told the press later that what the German government had in mind was "deploying civilian expert teams for the reconstruction in Afghanistan."

Columnist William Pfaff Blasts Straussians

Writing in the May 15 International Herald Tribune, columnist William Pfaff blasted the Straussians under the title, "The Long Reach of Leo Strauss." After listing the followers of the late "philosopher" Leo Strauss in and around the Bush Administration, including Paul Wolfowitz, Abram Shulsky, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan, and William Kristol, he wrote, "Something of a cult developed around Strauss.... The cult is appropriate because Strauss believed that the essential truths about human society and history should be held by an elite, and withheld from others who lack the fortitude to deal with truth. Society, Strauss thought, needs consoling lies."

Pfaff wrote how some saw Strauss's interpretation of Plato as "perverse" and comments: "The ostensibly hidden truth is that expediency works; there is no certain God to punish wrongdoing; and virtue is unattainable by most people. Machiavelli was right. There is a natural hierarchy of humans, and rulers must restrict free inquiry and exploit the mediocrity and vice of ordinary people so as to keep society in order.

"This is obviously a bleak and anti-utopian philosophy that goes against practically everything Americans want to believe. It contradicts the conventional wisdom of modern democratic society. It also contradicts the neo-conservatives own declared policy ambitions to make the Muslim world democratic and establish a new U.S. led international order, which are blatantly utopian." He quoted Strauss saying, "No human being can and no group of human beings can rule the whole of the human race justly."

He concluded, "Strauss's thought is a matter of public interest because his followers are in charge of U.S. foreign policy. But he is more interesting than they are."

Pope Celebrates 83rd Birthday, Calls for UN To Lead Iraq Reconstruction

On Sunday, May 18, the Pope celebrated his 83rd birthday and proclaimed four new saints. Observers stressed that John Paul II appeared today to be more physically vigorous than a year ago. The Pope is also preparing for his 100th trip abroad, to Croatia, where in June he will visit the cities of Rijeka, Dubrovnik, Osijek and Zadar, and make a brief stop in Banja Luka, Bosnia to canonize a saint there.

On May 15, while receiving 12 new ambassadors to the Holy See, the Pope reiterated the need for the UN to play a central role in resolving conflicts and in the reconstruction of Iraq. "The United Nations are more then ever called to be the pivot of decisions concerning the reconstruction of nations." He added, "It is important that diplomacy regain its noble spirit." Among the 12 new ambassadors was the representative of Australia, a prominent member of the "coalition of the willing" in the Iraq war.

The Pope has also sent his Secretary of State Angelo Sodano to Kazakhstan, on the anniversary of the papal visit there. A local wire reports that Sodano has "supported initiative of Kazakhstan on hosting a congress of world religions."

Commenting on the extraordinary energy of the Pope, despite his illness, Sodano said that it "comes from his great interior life and from the virtue of strength."

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini commented that on the issue of peace, the Pope has exercised a real world primacy: "As far as I remember, not even in the Middle Ages, had the Pope been seen as the great spiritual leader of Christianity, as has occurred spontaneously today by non-Catholic Christians from every community and confession."

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