Why is President Nicolas Sarkozy of France meeting with President Obama on Tuesday, March 30?
A1: As the last of the so-called EU-3 (the United Kingdom, Germany, and France) leaders to have a formal Oval Office meeting 14 months after President Obama took office, this is a much anticipated event for President Sarkozy. Although Obama had a working lunch with Sarkozy in Paris during commemorative events surrounding the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June of last year, he publicly sidestepped an invitation for the Obama and Sarkozy families to have a get-together, which was interpreted as a snub and fueled rumors of a lack of a close personal relationship between the two leaders. To dampen such speculation, there will be an informal, family dinner in the White House residence between the two transatlantic “power couples,” with Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama in attendance. The leaders come to this meeting from very different political positions. Fresh from his domestic health care reform victory and international win on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with
