From AFP:  US President  Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrated more than two centuries of Franco-American military ties in a joint ceremony Friday to mark the end of the intervention in Libya.

‘The friendship between the United States and France was built through blood,’ Sarkozy told members of the French and US military assembled at the town hall in Cannes after the end of a Group of 20 summit. . . .

‘The friendship between France and the United States is indestructible,’ he said. . . .

A smiling Obama thanked Sarkozy, ‘my partner, mon ami,’ and praised his ‘extraordinary leadership’ on Libya.

‘The US was proud to play a decisive role, especially in the early days,’ Obama said.

Above all the successful NATO-led intervention had shown ‘why NATO remains the world’s most effective alliance,’ and the importance of ‘more nations bearing the cost of peace and security,’ he said.

‘That’s how our alliance must work in the 21st century.’   (photo: AP)