U.S.-German dialogue more important than ever after Sept. 11

BERLIN -- Germany and the United States need to keep alive their dialogue as long-standing allies even though they differ over how to proceed in the war on terrorism, Germany's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Marking 50 years since the two countries began exchanges of academics, scientists and journalists under the Fulbright grant program, Joschka Fischer said U.S.-German lines of communication were "especially important and valuable" after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"As much as we feel with American people after the murderous attacks, as much as this international terrorism also threatens our free society -- the mood on opposite sides of the Atlantic is not identical," Fischer told an audience of Fulbright fellows at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

"It's important to get to know these differing moods and expectations, to understand them and communicate them," he said.

He emphasized the underlying strength of the relationship by recalling a huge solidarity demonstration at Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate three days after the suicide plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"Rarely was the emotional bond between Americans and Germans more palpable," he said.

But Fischer, a Greens party member, is also among a number of European officials who have criticized President George Bush for calling Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil."

Speculation that Iraq may be targeted next in the U.S.-led war on terrorism has tested the limits of Germany's declarations of solidarity and prompted Fischer to warn Washington against treating its allies as "satellites."

More than 30,000 German and U.S. citizens have studied with support from the program, part of academic exchanges with many countries championed by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright after World War II.

The U.S-German exchanges, financed by the two governments, are often credited with helping revive intellectual life in West Germany after the Nazi era. Those attending Tuesday's ceremony included Fulbright's widow, Harriet Mayor Fulbright.