On 9 October 1969, Egon Bahr, Head of the Policy Planning Staff in the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), forwards to the Foreign Minister, Willy Brandt, a note in which he gives a summary of a meeting with the French Ambassador, François Seydoux, concerning future relations between France and Germany. Bahr outlines to Brandt, who is to be elected Chancellor on 21 October, France’s temporarily uncertain position and suggests that he should propose to the French President that cooperation be enhanced between the two countries by moving from ‘exemplary cooperation’ to ‘preferential cooperation’.