FRANCE/GERMANY: France's decision to invite German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to attend June commemorations of the D-Day invasions shows that times have changed in Europe, a German government spokesman said today.
It was "with great joy" that Mr Schröder accepted the invitation to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations on the Normandy beaches, government spokesman Mr Thomas Steg said in Berlin.
Mr Steg stressed the "enormous symbolic meaning" of inviting a German head of state to mark D-Day, signalling the resolution of many post-second World War questions that have plagued Europe - particularly the two former enemies.
"It is a sign that times truly have changed," Steg said. Mr Schröder is to be the first German leader to mark an anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6th, 1944. For the 60th anniversary commemoration, France has invited leaders of second World War allied nations, including US president George Bush.
Ten years ago, Chancellor Helmut Kohl was not invited to the 50th anniversary ceremony - a decision that caused anger in Germany and soured relations with France. French-German ties got a boost in January 2003 when the neighbours marked 40 years of reconciliation, pledging to work together at the heart of the European Union. D-Day, while largely credited with launching Europe's liberation from the Nazis, is virtually unknown in Germany.
Operation Overlord, the code name for the landings, will be marked with a ceremony at Arromanches, a Normandy town between two of the beaches where soldiers came ashore.
About 21,000 Germans are buried at La Camb in Normandy. A few simple wooden crosses - erected by German veterans and apart from the cemetery for the 9,386 fallen US soldiers - mark the spot above Omaha Beach where the Nazis fell.
Mr Edwin Hannath, general secretary of the National Veterans' Association (NVA) in Britain, said he did not mind the presence of Mr Schröder as long it was not intrusive.
Referring to President Chirac's actions, he said: "It was a French invitation, not British, and we can't do much about that. If he comes, he comes, as long as he doesn't bring his own contingent as well."
The NVA is organising a service of commemoration at Bayeux War Cemetery on June 6th followed by a parade through the town of Arromanches.
"We go there as a pilgrimage. We go to remember those that we left behind," said Mr Hannath (83).