As many of you will recall, just weeks ago in Prague, President Obama proposed his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. As we have been cataloging, not everyone thinks this is such a good idea. Now it turns out that the French, too, are ‘annoyed’ by President Obama’s plan.
According to a leaked memo addressed to President Nicolas Sarkozy and obtained by Le Figaro:
“Paris is annoyed at the worldwide enthusiasm unleashed by the speech on disarmament given in Prague last Sunday by Barack Obama … it is feared that the effect of the extremely flattering image obtained by the new head of the White House by praising total denuclearization reinforces the perception of a France that clings to its nuclear weapons. Paris, in any case, doesn’t intend to ‘take lessons from the Americans’ on the matter of disarmament, a process to which they [members of the French government] believe themselves to have contributed greatly.”
The news item goes on to detail the many reasons Paris feels upstaged and off-footed by fresh-faced newcomer, Barack Obama.
By Alain Barluet
Translated By L. McKenzie Zeiss
April 10, 2009
France – Le Figaro – Original Article (French)
EXCLUSIVE: A memo intended for Nicolas Sarkozy minimizes the impact of the speech in Prague given by the American president last Sunday.
Paris is annoyed at the worldwide enthusiasm unleashed by the speech on disarmament given in Prague last Sunday by Barack Obama [Watch Below]. Certainly, the initiatives he announced were officially saluted in a communiqué from the Quai d’Orsay [France’s Foreign Ministry]. At the Elysée, the propositions of the American president on the elimination of nuclear arms were deemed “100 percent positive.”
But at the same time, it is feared that the effect of the extremely flattering image obtained by the new head of the White House by praising total denuclearization (“Global Zero”) reinforces the perception of a France that clings to its nuclear weapons. Paris, in any case, doesn’t intend to “take lessons from the Americans” on the matter of disarmament, a process to which they [members of the French government] believe themselves to have contributed greatly.
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