France not to toe U.S. line on civilian nuclear energy

Sandeep Dikshit

France's panache for assertion of independence in foreign policy will be on display at an international conference on nuclear energy to be inaugurated by its President Nicolas Sarkozy here on Monday. The global meet takes place a month before a similar conference to be hosted by the U.S. which will look at access to civil nuclear energy from an entirely different perspective.

“We take into account rules established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ask countries to observe them and no more. The U.S. asks for more by incorporating conditionalities. It is their policy. Our policy is different,'' pointed out Ambassador Denis Gauer, General Secretary for the preparations to the conference.

In this respect, he recalled Mr. Sarkozy's observations which are at variance with those of the U.S.-UK alliance. “We don't want to be the leaders but have a clear position on nuclear energy. France is ready to help any country which wants to acquire civil nuclear energy. We can't have energy for the future for Western countries and have Eastern countries which can't get access to it,'' the French President had said. “That sums up the theme of the conference,'' said Mr. Gauer.

<SNIP>http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article201617.ece

when it comes to other policies, france is almost always lauded here as oh so superior to dumb amerikka (tm)

when their successful nuclear energy policy is referenced, all of a sudden luddites rule and "it wouldn't work here"

many people still can't get over reflexive 60's ideology "no nukes", "nukes are bad, mmkay" and no amount of empirical evidence will convince them otherwise