Philippe Noël Marie Marc Étienne (born 24 December 1955) is a French diplomat who has served as Ambassador of France to the United States since 2019. He previously served as chief diplomatic adviser to the

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

, Emmanuel Macron, from 2017 to 2019. Étienne was nominated as Ambassador to the United States effective 30 May 2019. In response to the

AUKUS AUKUS (, ) is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered ...

agreement, he was recalled to France in September 2021. The measure was unprecedented; in almost 250 years of diplomatic relations, France had never before recalled its US ambassadorship. The Biden administration tried to placate French anger. Jean-Pierre Thébault, the French Ambassador to Australia, was also recalled.

Biography

Étienne was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He entered the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

in 1974, and graduated the

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

in 1980, alongside François Hollande and

Michel Sapin Michel Sapin (; born 9 April 1952 is a French politician who served as Minister of Finance from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2014 to 2017. He is a member of the Socialist Party. He was Minister of the Civil Service from 2000 to 2002 and Minis ...

. He also has an agrégation in mathematics and studied Serbo-Croat at

INALCO Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

. As a diplomat, he has served in Belgrade (1981-1983),

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

(1985-1987), the French mission to the EU in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

(1988-1991 and 1997-2002),

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

(1991-1994) and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

(ambassador to Romania, 2002-2005). He has also served in various roles in Paris, notably as president of the

Agency for French Education Abroad The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (french: Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger; abbreviation: AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...

(2004-2007). He has also worked as deputy chief-of-staff to

Hervé de Charette Hervé de Charette (; born 30 July 1938 in Paris) is a French centrist politician. He is a descendant of the royalist military leader François de Charette and of king Charles X of France. Member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he was ...

(1995-1997) and as chief-of-staff to Bernard Kouchner (May 2007-April 2009). In the latter role, he was closely involved in the

2008 G20 Washington summit The 2008 G20 Washington Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy took place on November 14–15, 2008, in Washington, D.C., United States. It achieved general agreement amongst the G20 on how to cooperate in key areas so as to stren ...

following the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, the evacuation of French citizens from

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

during the Russian invasion of Georgia, and the French

presidency of the Council of the European Union The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member state ...

. From 31 July 2014 he served as French ambassador to Germany. In April 2017, he was designated to replace

Jean-Maurice Ripert Jean-Maurice Ripert (born 22 June 1953) is a French diplomat. From 2013 to 2017 was the Ambassador of France to the Russian Federation. He is the current ambassador of France to China. From 2009 to 2011, Ripert was the UN's Special Envoy for Ass ...

as French ambassador to Russia, but was instead appointed diplomatic adviser to President Emmanuel Macron on 14 May. Étienne’s appointment was widely interpreted as signaling a desire for close ties to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the EU. He was made a knight of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

on 22nd 2003, and was promoted to officer on 1 January 2013. He was made a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

of the National Order of Merit on 14 May 1994. Besides French, Étienne speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, Serbo-Croat,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

. He was nominated in May 2019 by President Emmanuel Macron as ambassador of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

effective September 2019.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etienne, Philippe 1955 births Living people People from Neuilly-sur-Seine Ambassadors of France to the United States Ambassadors of France to Germany École Normale Supérieure alumni École nationale d'administration alumni INALCO alumni Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany