Just suppose that George W. Bush, speaking from the banks of the Danube river in Bratislava during his scheduled visit to Europe next month, announces his intention to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol. It would be a powerful way to revive transatlantic relations. But dream on. It is not going to happen.

Instead we will see a revival of old-fashioned transatlantic travel diplomacy. Next month, Mr Bush will stop by in Brussels and Mainz before his meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in Bratislava, where he will most certainly not announce a change of US climate policy. Expect a lot of idle talk about Europeans and Americans sharing the same interests, facing the same terrorist threat, and that the tsunami disaster brought us all closer together. Even the French have become increasingly pragmatic. On the surface it looks as though the political leaderships in the US and Europe are serious in their intent to put their disagreement over Iraq to rest and move on.