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| Europe | |||
| Bush thanks Belgium | |||
| 2004-04-08 | |||
| US President George W Bush wrote to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to congratulate him both for stationing F-16 fighter aircraft in the Baltic states and for his continued efforts in the fight against terrorism, La Libre Belgique reported on Wednesday. Bush wrote to Verhofstadt on 29 March, but the letter has only now come to light, the newspaper continued, adding that Verhofstadt had replied to the US President. Belgium sent the F-16s to patrol the Baltic states' airspace last week to coincide with the formal admission of the three former soviet republics- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - into the Nato military alliance.
In his reply to Bush, Verhofstadt stressed efforts the European Union has taken to combat terrorism since the 11 March train bomb attacks in Madrid, which left 191 people dead and over 1,400 injured.
He also pointed out that Belgium recently pledged to double its military presence in Afghanistan to 600 men.
Analysts say the exchange of letters is evidence of a continuing improvement in relations between Belgium and the US. | |||
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 EU countries don't have a problem with supporting us in Afghanistan--It's the lies about Iraq they have a problem with |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2004-04-09 1:18:48 AM |
| #9 Interesting.Belgium is a firm ally of France and Germany in EU.Considering Chirac recently embarrassed England in a speech,the leaking of this by Belgium could be seen as rebuke to French. (I maintain that a Euro country sending troops to Afghanistan is a way for that country to say "See,we're still good friends of US"-despite opposing everything else US does.) On the other hand,the exchange of messages may just be routine diplomacy. |
| Posted by: Stephen 2004-04-08 6:53:13 PM |
| #8 Thank you Belgium! Thank you Belgium! Thank you Thank you! Thank you Thank you! THANK YOU! and that is all you git. There see, we are fair minded. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-04-08 5:27:40 PM |
| #7 --It may be years-- decades, if ever. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-04-08 3:37:19 PM |
| #6 I'm not convinced. Now if they flushed the ICC down the crapper and decided to begin minding their own business with regard to indicting others for actions not within their jurisdiction, that'd be a different story.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-04-08 2:09:00 PM |
| #5 I LOVE Sharfenn-Berger! Such good flavor. |
| Posted by: remote man 2004-04-08 12:33:35 PM |
| #4 I'm sure there was a telephone call to Belgium from George Bush, from an unlisted, untraceable number. Somewhere during the call, the comment was made about "Just ask the French how much it costs to thumb your nose at America". That's all it takes. The French are STILL taking it in the shorts. It may be years before things get back to normal between our two nations, and France may be totally bankrupt by then. At least they make an excellent "bad example". |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-04-08 11:30:56 AM |
| #3 Did W send some Scharffen-Berger chocolate, too? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-04-08 10:44:46 AM |
| #2 NATO: Needs Americans To Operate |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-08 10:16:40 AM |
| #1 Relationships sure have changed with Belgium since they were talking about filing war crimes charges against Bush and Blair some months ago. We must really have twisted some hairs since then, as they've dropped the charges, amended their war crime statutes, and now this! |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-04-08 9:56:08 AM |