Sarkozy, Cameron step up nuclear ties at entente summit

Feb 17, 2012, 15:47 GMT

Paris/London - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday drew a line under their recent bickering on Europe, announcing plans to boost their cooperation in the areas of civil nuclear energy and defence.

At a summit in Paris the two leaders appeared eager to patch up the frosty relations which have been on display since December's fractious European Union summit.

'Franco-British relations are excellent,' Sarokzy declared, calling Cameron 'a man of courage' and saying he understood Britain's 'red lines' on European integration.

Cameron also glossed over the recent war of words, which included Sarkozy telling Cameron he had 'missed a good opportunity to shut up' on the eurozone debt crisis and Cameron labelling Sarkozy's plans for a financial transactions tax 'mad.'

The differences were never personal, said Cameron, for whom Franco-British cooperation was better now 'than at any time since World War II.

His visit was a chance to 'wish (his) friend well in the battle he has ahead,' Cameron said, referring to Sarkozy's reelection bid - remarks taken in France as a tacit endorsement of Sarkozy over Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.

Cameron said he admired 'Nicolas Sarkozy's leadership, his courage'.

The entente summit dealt mainly with energy and defence cooperation.

Britain last year announced plans to build up to eight new nuclear power plants, bucking the trend in many European countries to slow or cancel nuclear plans in the wake of last year's Fukushima disaster.

France, the world's largest constructor of nuclear power plants, is poised to win a large share of the business, but the British government wants to ensure that British companies also benefit.

British company Rolls-Royce on Friday announced it had landed a deal with French nuclear plant builder Areva to help construct the first of the new plants at Hinkley Point in south-west England. Rolls-Royce said the deal could be worth up to 400 million pounds.

Cameron said the deals signed Friday would create more than 1,500 jobs in Britain.

Sarkozy and Cameron also confirmed plans to build a new generation of unmanned fighter aircraft, of which a prototype is set to be produced by 2020. The project will be led by France's Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems but Sarkozy left the door open to other partners.

'I have one very specifically in mind,' he said, apparently referring to Germany.

Friday's summit was the first bilateral between Sarkozy and Cameron since the two clashed at an EU summit on the eurozone debt crisis in December.

Cameron refused to sign up to a new European treaty on fiscal discipline after failing to secure safeguards for Britain's financial services industry - safeguards Sarkozy particularly opposed.

The French leader adopted a conciliatory tone on Friday, saying Europe needed Britain and that France and Britain were working on developing new processes to avoid butting heads on Europe.

On international, defence and energy issues, their views were largely convergent, he said.

The two leaders who fronted the international campaign to help topple late Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi vigorously denounced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

'What is happening in Syria is appalling. You have a government that is butchering and murdering its own people,' Cameron said.

Cameron said Britain was sending food rations for 20,000 people in Syria. The Press Association reported that Britain was donating 2 million pounds for food and medical supplies for people in areas affected by the fighting.

Cameron said Britain and France were also working 'very closely' with the Syrian opposition and on building up a new Syria contact group.

But they emphasized the differences between the Libyan and Syrian situations, including the absence of a unified opposition in Syria.

'We couldn't have had a revolution in Libya without the Libyans. We can't have a revolution in Syria ... unless the current opposition in Syria makes the effort at organizing and unifying (the people) so that we can support them more,' Sarkozy said.

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