The troubled Franco-U.S. relationship, long dogged by the acrimonious dispute over the Iraq war, finally appears headed back to normalcy. At the U.S. Embassy here last week, new U.S. Ambassador Craig Stapleton and top military officials declared that France and the U.S. are now ready to turn the page. A preliminary step toward this goal had been made earlier when NATO decided to hold an informal ministerial level gathering in Nice (AW&ST Feb. 7, p. 18). But interim events—such as disagreement over how to aid Sudan's Dar-fur region—had stalled the process. Army Gen. Henri Bentegeat, chairman of the French joint chiefs of staff— fresh from a week-long trip to Washington made at the behest of his U.S. counterpart, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers—said cooperation is now back on track. "Our defense relations have remained steady over the past few years, but they have been lower profile and involved fewer high-level exchanges.... Following this trip, such will no longer be the case."
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