Agenda: This week's big issues - 100 YEARS OF SHAKING HANDS CROSS- CHANNEL PARTY-GOING KICKS OFF AS ENGLAND AND FRANCE CELEBRATE THE CENTENARY OF THE ENTENTE CORDIALE.(Comment) From: The Independent on Sunday (London, England) | Date: April 4, 2004| Author: Pyke, Nicholas | COPYRIGHT 2004 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Byline: Nicholas Pyke

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are paying a state visit to France this week. The entente was the breakthrough that ended Britain's late Victorian policy of "splendid isolation" and led to the formation, with Russia, of the Triple Alliance. Signed in London on 8 April 1904, it aimed to settle global disputes. The agreement prepared the way for Franco-British co-operation before the Firs...