Will the U.S. and French Presidents Resolve Their Differences over the Iraq War?

U.S. President George W. Bush will have a one-on-one chat with French President Jacques Chirac on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit on June 2, Elysee Palace announced on May 28. The summit of the Group of Eight nations (seven Advanced nations and Russia) begins on June 1 in Evian and closes on June 3.

The one-on-one meeting will be the first tete-a-tete between the two presidents since last December. President Bush will also have separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. will recover its damaged relationship with countries in the anti-war axis.

President Bush, however, has not made out a schedule for a separate talk with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The U.S. will not forget or forgive countries that drove the U.S. into a corner during the war with Iraq even if the U.S. seeks cooperation with Europe on new agendas, said U.S. administration officials as quoted by Agentur of Germany.

Jei-Gyoon Park phark@donga.com