Washington, June 15: The US Department of Defence has dismissed comments by French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who has accused her US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld of espousing a US-centered vision of the world. "The French Defence Minister is entitled to her own opinion," said department spokesman Jim Turner yesterday. "However, her opinion does not accurately characterize the policy or position of the secretary of defence, or the position of the us government."
The testy exchange came amid signs of a general thaw in Franco-US relations that have been jolted by France's refusal to support a US-led invasion of Iraq and its threat to veto a UN Security Council resolution authorizing use of force against Baghdad.
However, a meeting between US President George W. Bush and French leader Jacques Chirac on the sidelines of a group of eight summit earlier this month appeared to have reversed the downward slide in bilateral ties, according to diplomats.
Chirac told a group of visiting US businessmen Friday that France and the United States continued to be bound by trust and ongoing dialogue and remained "loyal allies," according to his spokeswoman.
However, in an interview with Le Monde newspaper published yesterday, Alliot-Marie expressed strong disagreement about what she believed was Rumsfeld's view of the United States as the strongest country in the world.
"The American Defence Secretary believes that the United States is the only military, economic and financial power of the world," the French Minister told the paper. "We don't share this vision."
Bureau Report