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France, Germany Stress Questions over NMD
French President Jacques Chirac and visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Friday night reaffirmed their questions over the United States plan to deploy national missile defense shield (NMD) and urged Washington to listen to allies' opinions.
"For the moment, we have questions, which should be discussed together," said Chirac referring to recent consultation between an American delegation and French officials over the NMD plan.
He made this remark following a three-hour informal meeting with Schroeder in a restaurant in downtown Paris on Friday night.
On his part, Schroeder said, "To dialogue means to exchange points of views. The dialogue will not work unless each of the interlocutors listens to the other, takes him seriously and eventually changes his own position."
Both Chirac and Schroeder said they agree to continue consultation with George W. Bush administration.
Like other U.S. allies, France and Germany have been troubled by the Bush administration's determination to move ahead with what is seen in Paris and Berlin as an unproven and potentially destabilizing system that would involve the abrogation of the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty.
On Wednesday, an American delegation led by U.S. deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz toured Paris and Berlin from where it gathered a number of questions over the missile defense plan.
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