France should boost cooperation with Asian countries

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

When Saddam Hussein was deposed, everyone believed that President George Bush's next target would be Syria, especially with the strong warnings which had emanated from Washington.

Syria was accused of two offenses -- one for hiding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and the other for harboring the close aides of Saddam Hussein.

The world genuinely believed that a military campaign against Syria was imminent. However, perhaps after reviewing the actual situation, Washington decided to pull back on the excuse that Damascus was changing its attitude.

Washington would be completely alone if it should decide to attack Syria as well since even Bush's closest ally, Tony Blair, would never be able to join forces in such a military foray.

The U.S. may be the only world power left, but even it could not take on the world and definitely other governments would no longer tolerate another war so soon after Iraq.

It would have been difficult even for the Bush administration to impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on Syria just to teach it a lesson as there would be few followers.

Such sanctions could only be imposed by the United Nations if they are to have international acceptance as was the case against Iraq. Instead, Bush has chosen France as his next target.

President Jacques Chirac was the strongest critic of the Iraqi invasion and made every effort to frustrate Bush, threatening even to use his veto in the Security Council to block any move to have a second resolution for this purpose.

The Bush administration has been using the conservative media to appeal to the raw emotion of the Americans to boycott French products and services.

This is just to show France and governments both in and outside Europe that they will have to pay for not supporting Washington in its hour of need.

Such a boycott will definitely have a significant impact on these governments, especially the French, and only time will tell what the damage will do to their economies.

To show his displeasure, Bush has announced publicly that Chirac would not be invited to his ranch and neither would any future meeting between the two leaders be held in the foreseeable future.

However, France has won many new friends and admirers for standing up to Bush and it is up to Chirac to follow up on this goodwill.

Paris can step up its ties with countries in Asia for example and establish closer economic links to offset what it has lost in America due to the boycott.

Countries in East Asia, in particular, and the Indian sub- continent have grown economically over the past decade and in a position to buy more French products and services.

It is also time, too, for the Arab states to show their appreciation of the French position in the past few months over Iraq.