World Leaders Meet to Mediate Opinions on Rebuilding Iraq

With the September 23`s UN General Assembly approaching, leaders of superpowers are meeting each other in serial summit meetings.

The aim of such summit meetings is to harmonize the opinions of the superpowers before adopting resolutions at the UN Security Council on the issue of rebuilding post-war Iraq.

Leaders of the three major European countries, including French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder met on September 20 in Berlin, Germany. President George W. Bush of the US is scheduled to meet with President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who are visiting the US for the General Assembly, on September 23, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 26.

▽ European Big 3

Britain, a major part of the allied troops, and France and Germany, who were against the war, met for the first time after the war and talked matters over. Leaders of the three countries agreed that the UN has to play the key role in dealing with the post-war Iraq. They also agreed that Iraqi citizens should be made the owner of Iraq as soon as possible.

However, there were differences in their opinions on when to transfer the sovereignty. While Chirac insisted on ˝within few months,˝ Blair commented that, ˝it is too early to discuss the time of transfer.˝

Blair has been the European ˝spokesperson for the US,˝ and the US is currently suggesting that the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority should govern Iraq until a new Iraqi government has been established.

Nevertheless, despite such differences, the atmosphere of the talks was friendly. When Blair was asked whether he has attended the meeting ˝as the special envoy of President Bush,˝ by a British journalist after the meeting, Chirac and Schröder even took sides with Blair, saying that, ˝Blair is Blair.˝

▽ Bush in Action

President Bush is planning to meet with President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder on September 23 in New York, to ask for their support on the resolution on Iraq the US will submit. Bush also called Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi.

As if not to provoke Chirac and Schröder, at a press conference on September 18 at Camp David, Bush said that, ˝the new UN resolution will not be ready until next Tuesday (September 23),˝ implying that he will confirm the resolution only after consulting the two leaders.

Chirac and Schröder are seeking for ways to take sides with the US in an honorable way. President Putin, who will be meeting Bush at Camp David from 26 to 27, eased the burden on President Bush on September 20, saying that he is not ˝opposed to creating a US-led multinational army.˝

▽ Prospects for the resolution

UN observers are expecting the resolution to be adopted within this month. Overall outlook for the content of the resolution is that although the military-related issues will be led by the US, political and economic issues will be dealt with by the UN, in a multilateral manner.

The result seems to compromise the US policies, which argues that the US should take the lead in dealing with the post-war Iraq, and the policies of France, Germany and Russia, which insist that the process should be led by the UN.

France and Germany have no other choice than to back up from the military issue, for their intervention will inevitably result in dispatching French and German army. Russia and China are also showing signs of appeasement, compared to the times of the Iraqi war.

Professor Kim Tae-hyo of Institute of Foreign Affairs & National Security forecasted that, ˝the resolution will be passed after all, for Russia and China are maintaining positive relations with the US after their co-participation at the six-party talks on the North Korea`s nuclear issue.˝

Jei-Gyoon Park Jung-Ahn Kim phark@donga.com credo@donga.com