Nicolas Sarkozy to attend Commonwealth meeting

Maybe France should join the group – only a few short centuries ago, Calais was ruled from London

It has all the makings of a love-in: Nicolas Sarkozy will today make a small piece of history when he becomes the first French president to attend a Commonwealth heads of government meeting.

Sarkozy is to stop off in Trinidad and Tobago on his way home from the summit of Amazon countries he has attended at the invitation of Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

It would once have been unthinkable for a French president to have attended a summit of former British colonies where English is, so to speak, the lingua franca.

Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's predecessor, once stormed out of a European summit when a French business leader addressed the gathering in English.

And then of course there was Charles de Gaulle's address to the people of Quebec in 1967, in which he encouraged them to establish an independent French-speaking nation.

In a notorious speech which angered the Canadian government, De Gaulle said in Montreal: "Vive le Québec. Vive le Québec libre."

Sarkozy's decision to attend the summit shows how far he has distanced himself from his predecessors, whose Gaullist vision meant they never accepted the supremacy of the English-speaking US.

On his state visit to Britain last year, Sarkozy delivered a moving tribute to the Anglo-American soldiers who gave their lives on D-Day in 1944 and afterwards to liberate France.

The Commonwealth has invited Sarkozy to attend the summit to discuss climate change today ahead of the Copenhagen summit, which opens in 10 days.

His presence in Trinidad and Tobago is meant to symbolise cooperation between the English and French speaking worlds.

There has always been something of a rivalry between the 53-strong Commonwealth and its Francophone equivalent, the 56-strong Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). Both think the other uses slightly sneaky methods to boost numbers.

The Commonwealth includes Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony. This weekend's CHOGM is expected to approve the entry of Rwanda, a former Belgian colony that would fit more naturally into the Francophone organisation.

Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, is turning his back on the Francophone world in protest at what he sees as French aid in the Hutu massacre of 1994, as my Daily Telegraph colleague Ben Brogan has written on his blog.

But then maybe France would be entitled to join the Commonwealth under the old rules that decreed that the organisation was open to former British, or indeed English, colonies. It is only a few short centuries that Calais was ruled from London. The love affair came to an end in 1558, the year Elizabeth I ascended the throne.