In this interview excerpt, Francis Gutmann, an official in the French Foreign Ministry from 1951 to 1957 and Secretary-General of the External Relations Ministry from 1981 to 1985, explains why the issues surrounding the Franco-British military intervention during the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis were discussed in Western European Union (WEU).

In this interview excerpt, Francis Gutmann, an official in the French Foreign Ministry from 1951 to 1957 and Secretary-General of the External Relations Ministry from 1981 to 1985, emphasises France’s traditional position on the ‘out-of-area’ operations led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

In this interview excerpt, Francis Gutmann, an official in the French Foreign Ministry from 1951 to 1957 and Secretary-General of the External Relations Ministry from 1981 to 1985, discusses France’s position on the Soviet military presence in the Mediterranean during the Cold War and its implications for the balance of forces. France was prepared to do all it could to maintain a strategic balance between the United States and Russia in the Mediterranean, but the situation in Afghanistan was not seen as a direct threat to the strategic balance in the region.

In this interview excerpt, Francis Gutmann, an official in the French Foreign Ministry from 1951 to 1957 and Secretary-General of the External Relations Ministry from 1981 to 1985, Chairman of Gaz de France from 1988 to 1993 and Chairman of the French Institute of Petroleum from 1993 to 1995, emphasises the fact that, as a defence organisation, Western European Union had a responsibility to discuss energy security issues. The Ambassador also describes the difficulties involved in devising a common energy policy for the European Union Member States, given their major domestic policy differences.