By Xinhua,
Washington : U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday hailed the relationship between the United States and Europe as “unprecedented” despite major disputes.
“The level and breadth of the cooperation between America and our European allies today is unprecedented,” Bush, who is currently on his farewell European tour, said in his weekly radio address.
In his address, Bush said the United States and its European allies are cooperating closely in the fields of intelligence, finance, law enforcement, diplomacy, and military power to fight terrorism.
“We’re also working together to ensure that Iran is not allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon,” he said. “Together, America and Europe are pursuing strong diplomacy with Iran, so that future generations can look back and say that we came together to stop this threat to our people.”
However, the outgoing U.S. president also highlighted that Europe must do more to help Afghanistan and Iraq overcome ongoing bloody violence, in the same way that the United States helped war-ruined Europe rebuild after World War II.
The New York Times said in a report Saturday that the war in Iraq has strained relations with Europe, not to mention with the Muslim world.
And the war has done more harm to U.S.-Europe ties than what the intermediate missiles, which were deployed in Europe in 1984 by the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan during the height of the Cold War had, said the report.
Meanwhile, climate change still remains a thorny issue in transatlantic relations. The EU has unilaterally promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 below 1990levels. But the Bush administration has refused to set mandatory goals for fear of hurting economic growth, citing the need to engage major emerging economies.
Currently, Bush is in France on his eight-day Europe tour which has already taken him to Germany and Italy. On Tuesday, he attended the annual EU-U.S. summit in Brdo, Slovenia, which focused on transatlantic relations, terrorism, and other global and regional challenges including climate change and food prices.
Bush will visit Britain on Monday on this farewell trip before he leaves the White House in January 2009.