Jean-Bernard Raimond
Jean-Bernard Raimond (French pronunciation::; 6 February 1926 – 7 March 2016) was a conservative French politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of Jacques Chirac from 1986 to 1988, as French amb*ador to a number of states from the 1970s to the 1990s, and as a deputy in the French National *embly from 1993 to 2002.
Biography
Educated at the elite École Normale Supérieure (graduated 1947) and the École nationale d'administration, Raimond served in a variety of civil service positions with the French government, in 1967 he became a member of the staff of Maurice Couve de Murville, at the time the French Foreign Minister, and later to Louis de Guiringaud in 1978. He was amb*ador to Morocco from 1973 to 1977, to Poland (1982–1984), to the Soviet Union (1985–1986) and to the Vatican (1988–1991). In between terms as amb*ador, he served in various posts in the French Foreign Ministry, including his term as Foreign Minister from 1986 to 1988.
In 1993, he was elected to the French National *embly as deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône (Aix-en-Provence) as a member of the Neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), and was reelected in 1997 for a term ending in 2002.
He was very active in Franco-Moroccan relations and is a member of a number of bilateral friendship committees, participated in non-governmental international colloquia, and wrote several books. Raimond was also the recipient of a number of French and foreign honours, including Officer of the Légion d'honneur, Commander of the Ordre national du Mérite, Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, Grand-cordon du Ouissam-Alaouite (Morocco), and the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX (Vatican).
Bibliography
- Le Quai d'Orsay à l'épreuve de la cohabitation (Flammarion, 1989) – ISBN:2-08-066426-3
- Le Choix de Gorbatchev (Odile-Jacob, 1992) – ISBN:2-7381-0189-5
- Jean Paul II, un pape au cœur de l'histoire (Le Cherche-Midi, 1999) – ISBN:2-86274-999-0