Bulgarian medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with
HIV arrive at Sofia airport on Tuesday. (Nikolay Doychinovn/Reuters TV)

During his recent presidential campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy promised to be the candidate of change, someone who was committed to breaking up France’s sclerotic political system and over-regulated economy. In foreign policy, too, Sarkozy vowed to make France "a shining city upon a hill," a beacon of hope and a staunch defender of freedom, democracy, and human rights around the world. In this context, it seemed to be both smart politics and good morals when the media savvy Sarkozy (who never seems to miss an opportunity to make a splash) appointed Socialist politician Bernard Kouchner, the internationally respected co-founder of French humanitarian NGO "Doctors Without Borders," as his new foreign minister in May. However, barely two months into his five-year term, it appears that President Sarkozy is personally committed to a foreign policy agenda primarily driven by narrowly-defined French national interests, thus leaving his more idealistic foreign minister in the dust.

On Wednesday last week, Sarkozy visited with Libyan homme fort (even the French employ this euphemistic code-word for dictator) Col. Moammar Gadhafi and signed various, wide-ranging bilateral cooperation agreements in critical areas such as defense, health, the fight against terrorism, and civilian nuclear power. In fact, Sarkozy’s plane landed in Tripoli less than 24 hours after his wife Cecilia had left the Libyan capital together with six Bulgarian medical workers who were released from a Libyan prison in what turned out to be major photo-op for France’s telegenic first lady.

Under the terms of the Franco-Libyan nuclear deal, Sarkozy has agreed to provide Col. Gadhafi with an atomic reactor to be used for powering a desalination plant. In return, Libya will provide France’s nuclear power giant Areva with much-needed uranium. It comes very handy that Col. Gadhafi has about 1,600 tons of uranium left over from his country’s clandestine nuclear weapons program abandoned in 2004. Sarkozy’s nuclear deal with Col. Gadhafi--for many years a key sponsor of international terrorism--was criticized both in France and abroad. France’s anti-nuclear coalition, "Sortir du Nucleaire," accused Sarkozy of handing over nuclear technology to Libya in exchange for the nurses. "Civilian and military nuclear are inseparable," the French NGO said in a statement. "Delivering ‘civilian’ nuclear energy to Libya would amount to helping the country, sooner or later, to acquire nuclear weapons."

In Germany, leaders from all political stripes have also strongly condemned Sarkozy’s unilateral nuclear dealings with Col. Gadhafi. Reinhard Bütikofer, the usually cool-headed chairman of Germany’s Green Party, accused Sarkozy of pursuing a foreign policy based on "reckless, nationalistic actionism" that could facilitate Libya’s "attempt to get its hands on nuclear weapons." Ulrich Kelber, deputy Parliamentary Leader of Germany’s ruling left-wing SPD party (which supports the "Grand Coalition" with the conservative CDU/CSU parties headed by Chancelor Merkel), charged that "Sarkozy is primarily concerned about political grandstanding and the primitive pursuit of his own interests." According to Kelber, France’s decision to deliver nuclear technology to Libya "is certainly the wrong step," as one cannot predict who will come to power in Tripoli after the aging Col. Gadhafi. Conservative CSU foreign policy MP Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg declared that it would have been desirable that France coordinate the planned nuclear deal with its EU partners. According to zu Guttenberg, Paris "completely failed to take into account existing European concerns and reservations about the stability in Libya as well as in the neighboring region."

Finally, SPD German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler described the Franco-Libyan nuclear deal as "politically problematic," as it directly touches on Germany’s national security and economic interests. In fact, the French nuclear reactor is to be delivered by an Areva subsidiary in which German industrial giant Siemens has a 34 percent stake. Therefore, Deputy Minister Erler demanded that the planned nuclear reactor sale be the subject of high-level Franco-German political consultations. In this context, German politicians and energy experts are convinced that the best way to power the Libyan desalination plant would be to generate energy from solar thermal plants rather than from a nuclear reactor. Like in most other forms of renewable energy, German companies enjoy a leadership position in solar thermal technology. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Erler, Berlin had contacted Tripoli on several occasions to propose renewable energy solutions "Made in Germany"; however, the Libyan government never responded to these offers.