French President Jacques Chirac (left) talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrives at the Elysee Palace yesterday. Merkel is in Paris on her first official visit as Germany's first female Chancellor. - REUTERS
PARIS (AP):
ANGELA MERKEL made Paris her first foreign stop as German Chancellor yesterday, sending a message of continuity in her country's close ties with France at the heart of the European Union.
Merkel, sworn in Tuesday as Germany's first female Chancellor, holds talks with President Jacques Chirac before travelling onward to Brussels, Belgium, for meetings with EU and NATO leaders.
MOVE SIGNALS
The move signals her attachment to European integration and to trans-Atlantic ties that suffered strains under the leadership of Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder.
Merkel's visit to Germany's western neighbour was being scrutinised for signs of any shift in policy from the EU's most-
populous nation and biggest economy. She was accompanied by Social Democrat Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier.
France is watching to see whether Merkel's expected efforts to invigorate ties with Washington, which were bruised by Schroeder's rejection of the war in Iraq, will come at the expense of relations between Paris and Berlin. Ties between Chirac and Schroeder were particularly close.
TIES WITH SMALLER EU NATIONS
Merkel, who was to have lunch with Chirac in Paris before travelling on to Brussels, has suggested she will seek better ties with smaller European nations.
But she will be constrained by the presence of Schroeder's Social Democrats as equal partners with her conservatives in the new German coalition government.
With the EU in crisis over its future budget and its stricken proposed constitution, Merkel and Steinmeier have little time to cut their teeth.
Before their departure for France, Steinmeier said there would be "much continuity" between Berlin's foreign policy under Merkel and that pursued by Schroeder.
