Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Anna Kartashova Pierre Vimont, French ambassador to the United States, leads a forum about relations between the two countries at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on Tuesday.

The status of relations between France and the United States is improving, said Pierre Vimont, ambassador to the United States for France, but there are still a few contentions between the countries.

"The relationship between our two countries has been changing for the last eight or nine months since Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected," Vimont said Tuesday during a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. "There is definitely an improvement and a change in the atmosphere of the relation between our two countries."

Vimont credits Sarkozy, France's newly elected president, for much of that improvement.

"What I think Nicolas Sarkozy has been trying to do since he's been elected is to create a new atmosphere of trust and confidence between our two countries," he said.

Vimont acknowledged that there are disagreements between France and the United States on the war in Iraq, but he cited agreement and cooperation on other issues including the war in Afghanistan.

"Sarkozy has been very careful to state that France can be a trusted ally and a true friend of America, and therefore we were there to stay in Afghanistan as long as necessary because that was a major test for NATO credibility and a major test for French-American relations," he said.

Vimont said there are several major issues on which France wants to work with the United States, such as climate change. He said both countries need to develop clear, strong, serious commitments to get rid of pollution worldwide.

He also said immigration is a problem shared by the United States and France, as well as all of the other European countries. Vimont said it's not just the final-destination countries that are suffering but countries of transit such as Morocco that end up getting stuck with many African immigrants once they are deported.

"The only solution that we will be able to reach in the end is, of course, through the economic development of the countries of origin of many of those illegal immigrants," he said.

Ryan Larsen, a sophomore economics major who lived in France, said Vimont gave a fair viewpoint of the countries' situation, especially when it comes to immigration.

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