French centre-right presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said today that if elected he would make France a close partner of Washington but would not confuse friendship with "submission".
Laying out his plans for foreign policy if elected this spring, he praised many of French President Jacques Chirac's policies, such as opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq, which he called an "historic mistake".
France's UMP political party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech on his foreign affairs policy today
He said a president of France should not be silent in the face of human rights abuses in China or Russia.
Mr Sarkozy pledged a robust foreign policy with a strong emphasis on defence and vowed to bolster the institutions of the European Union.
He said he would maintain France's nuclear deterrent, which he described as "the life insurance of the French nation" and he pledged to keep defence spending at two percent of gross domestic product. "The nuclear deterrent remains an absolute imperative in my view," he told a news conference.
Mr Sarkozy said he would also set out to solve the institutional crisis that has gripped the EU since Dutch and French voters rejected a European constitution in 2005.
"The first emergency of our international policy is to solve the European institutional crisis opened by the Dutch and French 'no's," he said.
"If I am elected president of the republic, I will propose to our European partners a simplified treaty ... its aim will be that the European institutions which are no longer working start working again," he added.
Mr Sarkozy also said the world should not hesitate to toughen sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. "I think we should not hesitate to reinforce the sanctions regime because I believe in the effectiveness of these sanctions," he told reporters.
Top world powers France, Britain, the United States, Russia, China and Germany are in talks over stiffer sanctions against Tehran after it ignored a UN deadline to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce fuel for power plants or nuclear weapons.
Mr Sarkozy holds a narrow lead in the opinion polls over his Socialist rival Segolene Royal ahead of the first round of the presidential election on April 22nd.