Berlin Summit Scores High for Attempt at Compromise

The high-profile gathering in the German capital represents a first cautious attempt for the leaders of Germany, France and Britain to find common ground on Iraq-related foreign policy issues and heal Europe’s diplomatic wounds, which split open over support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Germany and France, as the two chief European nations opposed to the war, have forged a new sense of unity in the months following the U.S. invasion and have argued that the United Nations should be at the center of rebuilding efforts in Iraq and that its prime aim must be to place control of the country back in the hands of the people. The two countries have repeatedly called for an accelerated timetable for the hand-over of power to the Iraqis, something Washington is hesitant to concede. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder reiterated this position only two days earlier during their ministerial meeting in Berlin, when Chirac said a transfer of power to the Iraqi civilian authorities needed to happen not "within years, but months."

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, the third participant in Saturday’s Berlin round of talks, sat on the opposite end of the table on Saturday. As one of Washington’s staunchest supporters in the Iraq war, Britain fought alongside the U.S. and remains in the country as an occupying power. Although he certainly was not the odd-man in Europe -- Spain and Italy also endorsed the Iraq war --Blair was widely regarded as the chief opponent to the French-German axis in the European Union. Now at the first tri-lateral meeting between the three countries since the Iraq war, Blair aspired to narrow the gap between his country and Germany and France.

At a news conference after the two-hour talks Blair told reporters, "We all want to see a stable Iraq. We all want to see Iraq make a transition to democratic government as swiftly as possible. We all want to see, and know there must be, a key role for the United Nations." He added that he was convinced "whatever differences there are, they can be resolved."

Going into the meeting, no one really expected the removal of all differences over the Iraq war and complete agreement on the reconstruction process. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw remarked ahead of the talks that friendships were not about the absence of differences, but rather about learning how to deal with them. The question for Saturday was to what extent the three leaders would be willing to move on their positions for the sake of harmony.

Differences remain

The Berlin summit comes as Washington prepares to draw up a U.N. resolution aimed at a broader sharing of the financial and military burden of Iraq’s reconstruction. France and Germany have proposed changes to the U.S. draft calling for a greater U.N. role and a faster transfer of power to Iraqi civilian authorities. Britain, for its part, has been hesitant to stray far from the United States on Iraq and has largely followed Washington’s course in resisting a rushed transfer of power.

On Saturday Blair’s reluctance to move forward on the issue was evident in Chirac’s statements to the press emphasizing France’s position that there needed to be a rapid transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people within months. "Our views are not quite convergent at the moment," the French president said. "On the technicalities and timetable, we are still not fully agreed," he said, adding that the United Nations must play a much bigger role.

Shröder nodded in agreement, saying there was still a "need for discussions."

Prepared to compromise

At the same time Schröder and Chirac have expressed their willingness to compromise on the reconstruction of Iraq. The German chancellor said in an article published Friday in the New York Times that Germany is ready to help rebuild the war-torn nation. "Germany is willing to provide humanitarian aid, to assist in the civilian and economic reconstruction of Iraq and to train Iraqi security forces," Schröder said. However, he stipulated that the United Nations must play "a central role" in the process.

Chirac, too, has said his country would be willing to help train new Iraqi police officers and military personnel if Germany went ahead with its offer to do the same. "We share the same vision and preoccupations about Iraq [as Germany] and the need to evolve toward the stabilization and recovery of this country," the French leader said in Paris on Friday.

Harmony tops the agenda

For all three leaders, compromise and harmony were the key focus of the meeting.

Blair, who was upbeat about the talks said, "It is in everyone's interest that we reach agreement and I believe that we will."

Germany and France want to "make clear that they are ready to keep talking to reach an agreement on a U.N. resolution in the coming weeks or months," Frank Umback, security analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters.

For Germany, Saturday’s summit and the attempts to reach a compromise underline the government’s eagerness to mend transatlantic ties after it fell out with Washington last year over criticism of the war. Next Wednesday Chancellor Schröder will have his first face-to-face talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in nearly 18 months.

Schröder’s coordinator on German-U.S. relations, Karsten Voigt, said the talks with France and Britain could help transatlantic relations by fostering European unity. "We want a Europe that is strong so that it’s taken seriously as a partner by the United States, so that we have influence in Washington," he told Reuters.

Javier Solana, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, echoed that thinking in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on Saturday. He said that he was certain a U.N. resolution would be reached very soon and that Saturday’s talks would give an important boost to establishing a common EU foreign policy.