President Bush is in Vienna today, meeting with European leaders on a wide range of issues ranging from Iran’s nuclear program to hotly contested agricultural subsidies and the war on terror. Underlying the discussions at the U.S.-European Union Summit are welcome efforts by the Bush administration to forge closer ties with European allies even as polls show that America’s credibility among Europeans remains shaky, largely because of the unpopular war in Iraq.
Still, there is much about which the United States and the 25-nation European Union can find common ground. Bush needs support in Iraq and Afghanistan, where European nations have pledged $14 billion in financial assistance. In Iraq, many European leaders stand ready to help with reconstruction once the security situation allows it. In Afghanistan, NATO nations are assuming a key combat role next month, exposing NATO to unusual risk that is long borne by Americans and allied forces.
Trade tensions will give the leaders something less deadly to discuss, but just as controversial. The U.S. wants Europe to eliminate agricultural subsidies so that talks for a global free-trade pact can move forward. France, for one, hasn’t been willing to see it that way.
For their part, Europeans have been pressing Bush to close the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and they want the U.S. to lift visa restrictions on European citizens.
A survey conducted in 15 European countries by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released last week, showed that, with the exception of Britons, attitudes toward the United States continue to slide. Even so, it’s heartening to see the leaders in a more constructive dialogue. Ahead of the trip, Bush tried to play up U.S. ties with Europe, praising joint efforts to end Syrian involvement in Lebanon, establish peace between Israel and the Palestinians and battle AIDS and genocide in Africa.
We hope Bush will shore up a united front on Iran’s nuclear ambitions after recently joining Britain, France and Germany – plus China and Russia – in a diplomatic approach to Iran. After a nudge from Europe, the Bush administration offered to participate in negotiations if Iran agreed to suspend its nuclear enrichment program. In return, Bush hopes to get European support for sanctions if Iran refuses to go along. With the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Europe have plenty of incentive to mend the rift created when Bush decided to go to war in Iraq in 2003 despite international opposition.
The one-day summit in Vienna offers Bush an opportunity to test some of the themes he is expected to raise at the G-8 summit of industrialized nations next month in St. Petersburg, Russia. If the U.S. and Europe can march to a common drummer, it increases the chance of avoiding crises with Iran, with North Korea – and with one another on trade.
