Mr. Jean-David Levitte, Ambassador of France to the United States, is part of a dynamic new breed of experienced diplomats, and an aggressive defender of the French image in the US. Recipient of the King Legacy Award for International Service, he is passionate to the cause of reasserting confidence and strengthening France-US relations, appreciative of his performance by his own country.

He is  sensitizing the Americans, while promoting the Republic of France through high profile meetings, on Campus, at forums as well as business meeting with the US business milieu, fits the profile of Ambassador of the month, a title attributed to outstanding performance distributed by Diplomat Investment.


              Mr. Jean-David Levitte

9-11 revisited

During that fateful month of September, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte was president of the Security Council of the United Nations. He saw, from the 24th floor of his office building in New York City, the destruction of the twin towers, he said ‘the tragedy will remain in my heart for the rest of my days. At that moment, I felt that I was an American’, he continued, as was the view all over the world. The headlines on ‘Le Monde’, France’s major newspaper read: "We are all Americans "!  President Chirac was the first to visit Washington and New York City, on the 18th and 19th of September, expressing our solidarity with the American people, and with all New Yorkers. ‘I am full of admiration for New Yorkers; the way they reacted with dignity, courage, solidarity … and the same is true of course, for all the American people’!

Unable to reach anyone by phone, not even Paris for instructions, we had to rely on our own imagination. We needed to think of what could be the reaction of the United Nations to such a tragedy. We thought that our duty was to change International Law on two important aspects: we proposed to our Security Council partners first, we decided that such an act of International Terrorism as the one which occurred on 9/11 should be considered as an act of war. Which, according to the United Nations charter, means that the State, under such an aggression, has the right to self-defence. Secondly, we proposed, again for the first time, we decided that this self-defence should be targeted not only against those who committed the attacks namely, the terrorist network, but also against those States which offered hospitality, trade, equipped, and/or financed the terrorist network.

This resolution was proposed to our colleagues at the Security Council the very moment the doors to the United Nations building re-opened, it was on the morning of the following day, 12th September. The text was unanimously adopted one hour later; supporting the fact that U.N. Security Council can take bold initiatives and react promptly and unanimously. I also proposed to my colleagues, for the first time in U.N. history that we would adopt this Resolution not by raising our hands as we always do, but by standing in order to express our respect and solidarity with the American people. This Resolution paved the way to the war in Afghanistan and for this war we were all together and we were in the Security Council. France participated fully in the war with 5,000 troops, the air-craft carrier Charles de Gaulle and 100 planes. Today, we still maintain hundreds of troops in Kabul. It is now a NATO operation, an operation led by the Atlantic Alliance in Kabul and Iraq and the French general will be leaving this operation soon. But we have Special Forces fighting with yours on the border with Pakistan and, as you know, on the other side of the border there are Pakistani troops and we are firm to get the last elements of Al-Qeada and the Taliban in the region. Therefore, in this war against Terrorists, post 9/11, right from the beginning, we were together and still are together.

I'd like to say a few words about Europe. I think it is very important that you understand what we want to achieve with the European Union, because from time to time I read in a number of papers on this side of the Atlantic that France and Germany together want to build Europe as a kind of counterweight to American power. This is not what we want to achieve in Europe. We thought that the great condition of building a common destiny in Europe peacefully, drawing on the lessons of two World Wars, which were triggered by hatred between the Germans and the French. And building on the bigger lessons of these past of wars, blood, hatred, we have decided fifty years ago for the first time in history to build, peacefully, a common destiny. We have been united in the past, but always by force. We were united with the Roman Empire when the Roman legions unified Europe. We were unified by Napoleon, but again by the use of force. And by Hitler by the use of force. For the first time in history, the Europeans want to build their common destiny peacefully. It is a kind of miracle. We started very modestly by putting together our steel and coal industries. Why? Because you build guns with steel and coal. Then we continued by putting together our nuclear industries, because you can build nuclear bombs. Then we decided to build a common market. And during all these years we were slowly expanding from six to nine, ten, twelve, fifteen, and in May of this year, we will have another miracle: we will welcome ten newcomers.

This time it is a real miracle, because only fifteen years ago all of them were on the other side of the Iron Curtain. If you consider these announcements from a European prospective, yes indeed it is a miracle. And we try today to achieve another miracle. Building on the common market, we have adopted the Euro. Not to compete with the dollar, but simply because when you have a common market you need a common currency. Just consider for one second what would be your situation in the United States if you had one currency for Texas, one for the mid-western states and one for California. It wouldn't work. Now we have the Euro. It's a miracle, but, we discovered that beyond this economic integration we needed better institutions, because up to now we live by the institutions that were adopted fifty years ago when we were only six. And you cannot have the same institutions when you are twenty-five. So we decided to try to adopt a constitution.

We are not where you were in Philadelphia in 1787. You started from scratch with only one language, English, and a common vision, the future, the philosophy of the Enlightenment. We start with 2,000 years of History behind us. As Donald Rumsfeld said one day, « We are old Europe ». These 2,000 years of History is made of confrontation, wars, between the Frenchs and the Germans, the Frenchs and the Brits, the Frenchs and the Spaniards, the Spaniards and the Portugese, the Italians and the Germans, and so on and so forth. We have different legal traditions – constitutional inheritances. The UK has no constitution at all, but there are some twenty national constitutions to be considered. Nonetheless, with that figure, through a European Convention where representatives of the twenty-five countries have been working together, we'll do our best to adopt this text in the coming months. Then maybe you will understand a little better how it works, as a lot of Europeans will, because, frankly, sometimes, it is difficult to understand how our institutions work. This constitution will help us because it will replace the different treaties which are thick like that. For instance, you will have the President of the European Council that is the President for Europe, for five years. So you will see a face and hear a voice representing the European Union. You will not have to ask : Who's this guy? Who's in charge? We want to have more leadership, not only through a President, but also with the help of a real Foreign Minister of the European Union.

Let me conclude on Europe on this note : In my view, we are your indispensable partner, but we are your invisible partner. France is quite visible, maybe too much. Germany is very visible. The UK is of course very visible, Italy, Spain but the Europe Union as such is quite invisible. And that's why I think that it is important for you to learn a little more, not only about France and the French language (I thank you for that), but also about the Euro. Where do the troops which are deployed now in the Balkans, in Iraq, in Afghanistan come from? Not from China, or from Russia, or from Mexico, from Brazil, from Argentina. But from Europe. We are your partners, your key partners. And if you look in terms of economy, it's even more important. Two-thirds of the foreign direct investment in the United States comes from Europe. This represents 4 million American jobs. Our economies are really inter-dependent.

I'd like to conclude with a few words about our relations. The French-American relations went through a kind of diplomatic hurricane last year. But our friendship survived. And I think now, one year later, it is important to assess the situation. I discussed Iraq, and tried to explain why we had this difference, but if you look beyond Iraq, you see only reasons to celebrate our cooperation. I mentioned Afghanistan which is a perfect example of perfect cooperation. But I should also add the Balkans, Kosovo, and Bosnia, where our troops are fighting side by side to maintain peace. Helping this Balkan region to develop a free market economy. If you look beyond what do you see? A shared concern right from the beginning. We worked together at Yorktown, and during all of your wars for Independence. Not only with Lafayette and Rochambeau, but at Yorktown, you had as many French troops as you had American troops. For fifteen million dollars, you got all the land West of the Mississippi, that is thirteen states, thanks to the treaty signed between Napoleon and Jefferson. The United States saved France twice last century. At the end of the first World War and of course at the end of the second World War. This year, on the 6 th of June, we will commemorate in a very moving and solemn way the 60 th Anniversary of D-Day. And believe me, it will be a very moving moment. President Bush will come to Paris on the 5 th of June to have a meeting with President Chirac, and then the two presidents will be together on the Normandy beaches with a number of American Veterans. We express our views from time to time in a very candid way. You wanted France to be a free country. And as a free country, we say what we think. We are the family of world democracy. Most of the time, we do agree. From time to time, we disagree. And it seems to me that the duty of a true friend is to speak his mind and say when he disagrees with his friend, « Maybe you are wrong, let's talk about it ». It doesn't mean that we are not friends anymore. We are forever, and will remain forever, true friends and allies. It doesn't mean that we have forgotten what you have done for us, and believe me, on the sixth of June, you will hear from all over France, in one word, « Thank you, America, we will never forget. » I thank you.

BIOGRAPHY

Jean-David Levitte became ambassador of France to the United States on Dec. 9. He previously served as France’s permanent representative to the United Nations in 2000-2002 and as a diplomatic adviser and “sherpa” to French President Jacques Chirac from 1995 to 2000. Ambassador Levitte joined the Foreign Ministry in 1970, serving posts in Hong Kong (1971) and Beijing (1972-74). From 1975 to 1981, he worked at the Office of the President, and in 1981, he was posted as a Counsellor at the French Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Returning to Paris in 1984, Ambassador Levitte became deputy director of the West Africa section of the Foreign Ministry and then deputy executive assistant to the foreign minister two years later. Ambassador Levitte has also held posts as the ambassador and permanent representative of France to the United Nations in Geneva (1988-90) and director of the Asia-South Pacific section and head of cultural, scientific and technical relations at the Foreign Ministry (1993-95). He holds a law degree and is a graduate of the Institute of Political Science and the National School of Oriental Languages where he studied Chinese and Indonesian. Ambassador Levitte is an officer of the Legion of Honour; he is married and has two children.

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