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Sarkozy calls for Anglo-French unity on first day of state visit

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nicholas Sarkozy in 2007.
Image: MEDEF.

On the first day of his state visit to the United Kingdom, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech praising the British nation and called for an "entente amicale" between Great Britain and France, in place of the existing, more formal entente cordiale agreement. Speaking, unusually, to both Houses of Parliament, Sarkozy went on to praise the help Britain gave to France during both World Wars and said that "France would never forget" and that it owed Britain a debt of gratitude.

Speaking in the Royal Gallery in the Houses of Parliament, the French president went on to say that Britain was a "bulwark against tyranny" and, addressing the issue of the long history of Anglo-French conflict, that Britain and France had been in conflict with each other, not because they were too different, but because they were "too alike".

As well as praising Great Britain, Sarkozy also promised to propose sending more French troops to Afghanistan at the Bucharest Summit, to be held later this year, although he did not specify the number of troops he was planning to send.

During his two-day state visit, Sarkozy will meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and they are expected to discuss many different issues, from global finance to Afghanistan.


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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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