Nato summit/France

Obama meets Sarkozy in Strasbourg and Merkel in Baden-Baden

Article published on the 2009-04-03 Latest update 2009-04-03 16:12 TU

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer speaks at Nato 2020 conference
(Photo: Reuters)

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle met France's Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni in the western French city of Strasbourg. After a photo-op in the town centre, the two leaders held closed-door talks at the start of Obama's first visit as President to continental Europe. The US President then took a helicopter to Baden-Baden in Germany to meet Angela Merkel, ahead of a summit which will mark the 60th anniversary of the Nato military alliance.

The Nato summit gets underway with a concert to mark the anniversary and dinner in the chic German resort of Baden-Baden on Friday evening.

Despite differences at Thursday's G20 meeting, Europeans are hailing the meetings as a reversal of the George Bush adminstration's approach to what former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to as "old Europe".

The meeting with Sarkozy also marks France's formal return to the Nato military command.

At the formal meeting on Saturday, the most important point on the agenda will be Afghanistan, following Tuesday's summit in The Hague.

Other questions to be discussed include:

• Relations with Russia - they are likely to be improved after ties were frozen over last year's conflict in Georgia;
• Mission in Kosovo - this is likely to be cut back, ten years after Nato bombed Belgrade because of its military operation in the area;
• Expansion to the east - this is likely to stop, disappointing Georgia and Ukraine;
• Discuss a new General Secretary - No sooner had Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen officially declared he is a candidate on Friday, than Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country was against him because he failed to prevent publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed;
• Start updating strategy - Outgoing Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has prepared a first text to start the redrafting of a "strategic concept" for the 21st century.

After a surge Thursday in the aftermath of the London G20 summit, stock exchanges fell slightly on Friday, with London's FTSE down 0.35 per cent at start of trading.