French President Jacques Chirac marked the centenary of the 1904 Entente Cordiale with a two-day state visit to Britain, culminating in an address to 200 students and academics at the University of Oxford.
Chirac argued that military intervention, including pre-emptive action, must operate under strict United Nations oversight. No individual country, he said, has the right to decide when force is warranted: that authority belongs to the UN alone. He had been a vocal critic of the US-British decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 without explicit UN authorization.
He downplayed reports of a Franco-British rift, describing the historical bond between the two nations as strong despite acknowledged differences over Iraq. He highlighted shared military commitments in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Africa, and noted that Britain, France, and Germany were cooperating to prevent an Iranian nuclear crisis.
Chirac also proposed expanding the UN Security Council's permanent membership to include Germany, Japan, India, Brazil, and one major African nation, such as Nigeria or South Africa.
Earlier in the day, he laid a wreath at King Edward VII's tomb in Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel, with Prince Charles in attendance, marking the 8 April 1904 signing of the Entente Cordiale.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in November 2004, in its own words.