This week’s state visit by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, provides a useful opportunity, says Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. Although it is hard to think of two more “disparate characters” – Sarkozy’s yachts and Rolexes have no place in the “austere, Presbyterian, ordered home life of our own dear Prime Minister” – the reputations of both leaders have taken a battering recently, and they now have a chance to “prop each other up”.
With America becoming increasingly introverted and a gulf of Sarkozy’s making opening up between France and Germany, this summit provides a “marvellous opportunity for a new alliance” and gives France and Britain a chance to show that these “old-world, former colonial powers still have a part to play in addressing the world’s problems”.
The two men clearly have a rapport, says The Independent, and with no “pivotal” policy differences, Brown has a great opportunity to cement his relationship with Sarkozy and move Britain a “little closer to the heart of Europe”. Britain and France remain permanent members of the Security Council; they are nuclear powers and the only significant military forces in Europe west of Russia. They are also two of the largest economies in the world, so it is better for Britain, France and the rest of the world if the two countries work together.
In truth, we have been “merging” for some time, says John Lichfield, also in The Independent. Britain is home to 300,000 French people and 250,000 Britons live in France. France is Britain’s third-largest export market and we are France’s fourth-largest export customer. Our interests have also converged when it comes to facing threats from globalisation, militant Islam and the enlargement of the EU. So Brown and Sarkozy have plenty to talk about – the only fear is that the warmth of relations is so unusual that it cannot last.