Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

World Powers Seeking Peace

Aired June 02, 2003 - 10:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is now on his way to Egypt, where he is hoping to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But for much of this weekend, observers focused on his uneasy truce, if you will, with the chief opponent to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
For more on that now, let's turn to Robin Oakley, CNN's senior European political correspondent.

Hello -- Robin.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SR. EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

And certainly, they managed to get the choreography right in that meeting today that everybody was looking for between Jacques Chirac and George bush. It was a case, really, of hands around each other's shoulders instead of hands around each other's throats.

And there was a lot of careful phraseology going on. There was a tribute from George Bush to Jacques Chirac's knowledge of the Middle East. He said he'd be looking to him for advice on the Middle East peace process. And he thanked Jacques Chirac for backing the latest U.N. resolution on post-conflict Iraq.

Jacques Chirac, for his part, said that George Bush had the full backing of France and of the European Union and of the G-8 for driving forward with that Middle East peace process. So, clearly he wasn't too upset by the president leaving this G-8 assembly a day early.

That show of confidence, really, between the two leaders was important, because in terms of taking things forward on the world economy, as these G-8 summits were supposed to do, there had to be a degree of mutual confidence between the leaders. But we're not going to get anything very definite from them; for example, about the sliding dollar, the way the dollar is sliding against the euro and the yen, raising worries about exports from the euro zone and from Japan. and for the prospects of world growth.

And, of course, if there isn't that growth, then they're not going to be able to live up to all of the promises they're making in terms of debt relief, water supplies, cheaper drugs, access to markets for those developing countries. That's one of the issues that tends to lead those demonstrators together, although, as you were saying, the demonstrators today have been largely peaceful. We haven't seen the demonstrations marred, the way they were yesterday, by the hard- line anti-globalist activists who resort to violence -- Leon. HARRIS: All right, thank you very much, Robin -- Robin Oakley reporting for us live there from the G-8 summit. Appreciate that over in Evian, France.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired June 2, 2003 - 10:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is now on his way to Egypt, where he is hoping to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But for much of this weekend, observers focused on his uneasy truce, if you will, with the chief opponent to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
For more on that now, let's turn to Robin Oakley, CNN's senior European political correspondent.

Hello -- Robin.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SR. EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

And certainly, they managed to get the choreography right in that meeting today that everybody was looking for between Jacques Chirac and George bush. It was a case, really, of hands around each other's shoulders instead of hands around each other's throats.

And there was a lot of careful phraseology going on. There was a tribute from George Bush to Jacques Chirac's knowledge of the Middle East. He said he'd be looking to him for advice on the Middle East peace process. And he thanked Jacques Chirac for backing the latest U.N. resolution on post-conflict Iraq.

Jacques Chirac, for his part, said that George Bush had the full backing of France and of the European Union and of the G-8 for driving forward with that Middle East peace process. So, clearly he wasn't too upset by the president leaving this G-8 assembly a day early.

That show of confidence, really, between the two leaders was important, because in terms of taking things forward on the world economy, as these G-8 summits were supposed to do, there had to be a degree of mutual confidence between the leaders. But we're not going to get anything very definite from them; for example, about the sliding dollar, the way the dollar is sliding against the euro and the yen, raising worries about exports from the euro zone and from Japan. and for the prospects of world growth.

And, of course, if there isn't that growth, then they're not going to be able to live up to all of the promises they're making in terms of debt relief, water supplies, cheaper drugs, access to markets for those developing countries. That's one of the issues that tends to lead those demonstrators together, although, as you were saying, the demonstrators today have been largely peaceful. We haven't seen the demonstrations marred, the way they were yesterday, by the hard- line anti-globalist activists who resort to violence -- Leon. HARRIS: All right, thank you very much, Robin -- Robin Oakley reporting for us live there from the G-8 summit. Appreciate that over in Evian, France.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.