Jean-Bernard Raimond (; 6 February 1926 – 7 March 2016) was a conservative French politician who served as

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

in the government of

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

from 1986 to 1988, as French ambassador to a number of states from the 1970s to the 1990s, and as a deputy in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

from 1993 to 2002.

Biography

Educated at the elite

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

(graduated 1947) and the

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

, 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 ambassador to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

from 1973 to 1977, to Poland (1982–1984), to the Soviet Union (1985–1986) and to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

(1988–1991). In between terms as ambassador, 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

as deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône (

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

) 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

honour Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself ...

s, including Officer of the ''Légion d'honneur'', Commander of the ''Ordre national du Mérite'', '' Chevalier des Palmes Académiques'', ''Grand-cordon du Ouissam-Alaouite'' (

), and the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX (

Bibliography

*''Le Quai d'Orsay à l'épreuve de la cohabitation'' (Flammarion, 1989) – *''Le Choix de Gorbatchev'' (Odile-Jacob, 1992) – *'' Jean Paul II, un pape au cœur de l'histoire'' (Le Cherche-Midi, 1999) –

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raimond, Jean-Bernard 1926 births 2016 deaths Foreign ministers of France Politicians of the French Fifth Republic Ambassadors of France to Morocco Ambassadors of France to Poland Ambassadors of France to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of France to the Holy See 20th-century French diplomats Politicians from Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Knights of the Order of Pope Pius IX Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite Commanders of the Legion of Honour Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic