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LONDON — French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to bolster France's troop strength in Afghanistan during a speech to the British Parliament on Wednesday, the first day of a state visit.
Mr. Sarkozy made the pledge in an address to a joint session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and said he would confirm the offer during a NATO summit next week in Bucharest, Romania.
“France will propose, at the Bucharest summit, to strengthen its military presence,” Mr. Sarkozy said, speaking in the Parliament's grand Royal Gallery.
He did not specify a number, and said that sending more French troops would depend on NATO guarantees that Afghans would be given more responsibility, and that non-military efforts would be better co-ordinated.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy gestures as he delivers a speech to the UK parliament at Westminster Palace on Wednesday. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
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He is expected to brief British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the details Thursday.
Canada has warned that it would pull its 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan if other allies did not offer more help. Ottawa is seeking 1,000 more allied troops for anti-Taliban efforts in the southern province of Kandahar.
Mr. Sarkozy received a standing ovation at the end of his 45-minute speech, which also urged China's government to hold talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Nicknamed the “bling-bling president” because of his extravagant tastes, Mr. Sarkozy's trademark sunglasses and ubiquitous cell phone were nowhere in sight amid the elaborate pomp of the state visit.
He played the statesman, greeting the Queen and appearing reserved and sombre in a dark overcoat as he reviewed the Horse Guards.
His glamorous wife, the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was dressed in a demur belted grey Christian Dior coat and matching pillbox hat. She curtsied to the Queen, and they chatted animatedly at Windsor Castle.
“It was like a French Catholic schoolgirl meets Jackie O,” said Lucy Yeomans, editor of the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar, likening Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy's outfit to the famously stylish former U.S. first lady Jackie Kennedy.
Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy smiled earlier as Prince Charles kissed her gloved hand in greeting as he met the visitors at London's Heathrow Airport.
Britain's tabloids greeted her in typical style — printing a nude photograph she posed for in 1993. The original print is due to be auctioned in New York next month by Christie's auction house.
In his speech to Parliament, Mr. Sarkozy followed a powerful tribute to Britain's role in countering the threat of fascism in Europe with a promise to stand by London's side as it fought against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“We cannot afford to lose Afghanistan,” Mr. Sarkozy said, speaking in French. “Whatever the cost, whatever the expense, we cannot afford it.”
Mr. Sarkozy called for Britain and France to co-operate more closely in Europe and to work together to press the United States over action on climate change.
“Who better than its closest, sincerest friends to remind the U.S. of its responsibilities?” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Sarkozy stressed his admiration for what he called British strength and dynamism, calling for “a new Franco-British brotherhood.”
“It has been long enough now that we have not been at war, that we are not wrangling,” he told the BBC. “Perhaps we can move from being cordial to being friendly — that's my first message.”
The agenda for Mr. Sarkozy's meetings Thursday with Mr. Brown includes a number of weighty topics: expansion of France's military role in NATO and Afghanistan, a possible joint nuclear energy program, immigration and the credit crisis that has spread from the United States to Europe.
A host of French and British ministers will join the leaders for a summit at London's Emirates Stadium, home of the popular Arsenal soccer club, an English team with a French manager and some top French players.
Ministers plan to use the meetings to thrash out thorny issues including slow progress on a joint call for a 26,000-strong peacekeeping unit of UN and African Union troops for Sudan's western Darfur region and new support for French language lessons in British schools.
