Jean-Bernard Raimond (; 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 ambassador to a number of states from the 1970s to the 1990s, and as a deputy in the French National Assembly from 1993 to 2002.

Biography

Educated at the elite

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 ...

(graduated 1947) and 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 ...

, 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 Jacques-Maurice Couve de Murville (; 24 January 1907 – 24 December 1999) was a French diplomat and politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1958 to 1968 and Prime Minister from 1968 to 1969 under the presidency of General de Gaull ...

, 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 the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

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

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

(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 French National Assembly as deputy for

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...

( 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

honour Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

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 The Order of Pope Pius IX ( it, Ordine di Pio IX), also referred as the Pian Order ( it, Ordine Piano), is a papal order of knighthood originally founded by Pope Pius IV in 1560. Currently, it is the highest honor conferred by the Holy See (bein ...

(

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 French Foreign Ministers 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 Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic