SINGAPORE — Although one of the most notable moments at the June 1-3 Group of Eight summit in Evian, France, was the rapprochement between U.S. President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac, Franco-American relations have not been completely restored. Senior Bush administration officials and Congress still harbor a hope of "punishing" France and reducing its international relevance.
Knowing it must actively counter any potential American "punitive action," France is now playing its multilateral card to increase its international influence. While doing so, Paris has also sought reconciliation with Washington, as was demonstrated at the Bush-Chirac meeting in Evian as well as by the discretionary tone France has adopted amid political storms in London and Washington over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
France also abstained during a U.N. Security Council vote exempting the United States from International Criminal Court rulings for a year so as not to openly defy Washington again.