Meeting
AAPA meets with Arab League Envoy
The burning issues affecting Arab countries and the ongoing diplomatic ballet over the Palestinian question in the United Nations were among the key issues discussed between Arab League Ambassador to France Nassif Hitti and AAPA members over breakfast at the Procope Oct. 4. Hitti, a veteran diplomat and a multicultural academic, shed light on the complicated and often labyrinthine mechanisms…
Israel's Ambassador, Yossi Gal
Israel's ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, provided some twenty members on Sept. 8 with some frank, defensive, explanatory series of insights on some of the most sensitive issues facing his country and the international community. The breakfast meeting, hosted by the Israeli Embassy, covered French-Israeli relations, the controversial Palestinian move for recognition at the UN later this month;…
AAPA meets Palestine's Envoy
The stalled Middle East peace process and its implications for the Palestinian people were the main topics discussed when Palestinian ambassador to France, Hael Al-Fahoum, met with the AAPA on June 23 at the Palestinian mission. Over a lengthy breakfast, Al-Fahoum, a veteran diplomat and PLO insider since the late 1970s, explained his concerns for the region and discussed potential strategies for…
Kouchner Opens Up to the AAPA
Relaxed and extraordinarily frank, former foreign minister Bernard Kouchner willingly answered the central question put to him at a meeting with the AAPA on May 9: What's it like being a leftist minister in a Sarkozy government? "He decides - everything. Delegates all" to those responsible for domestic and particularly foreign policy, he said, noting the four "regal" ministries that count most…
BHL meets the AAPA
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy met with the AAPA on April 6th. Levy, better known by his initials, BHL, strode casually into the Bloomberg conference room… dressed in his usual attire – a black suit and collarless white shirt. He was very relaxed throughout the meeting, or perhaps it was jetlag. He had just returned from New York that morning. Levy is quite the statesman these days. He…
Rohatyn Speaks Out
Felix Rohatyn touched only briefly on his recently-published memoirs. When we met with him on Feb. 8 in an informal meeting at Member John Morris' apartment. Rohatyn, a longtime investment banker and former AAPA honorary co-president from the time when he was U.S. Ambassador to France, spent most of the evening airing his views on a wide range of issues in the news, ranging from the need to…
Supercop Grilled by AAPA
Ronald Noble, the head of international crime-busting organization Interpol, gave a rare insight into the group's workings when he was grilled by more than 30 AAPA members on Feb. 3. Noble has headed the Lyon-based organization since 2000 and was recently re-elected to a third five-year term. He told us how Interpol is grappling with the ever-increasing workload of international cooperation among…
ESA Explores The Final Frontier
People don’t realize how much their daily lives depend on space technology, according to the head of the European Space Agency. “To help EU citizens understand how much they rely on space in their daily lives,” ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain told AAPA members on Dec. 1, “I would like to have a ‘Space Day’ every year when I turn off all the satellites. Then they will see how important…
AAPA Meets Le Monde's Top Brass
More than 20 AAPA members went to Le Monde on November 9 to meet with the group's director, Éric Fottorino, and chief editor Sylvie Kauffmann, over an informal, bring-your-own lunch in the newspaper's conference room. The discussion centered around the paper's new trio of major shareholders who saved the paper from bankruptcy -- Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse -- and their impact…
Reporters sans frontières
Protecting the freedom of journalists has become far more difficult and complex during the past few years, but organized efforts to combat media controls are increasing throughout the world, according to Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general of Reporters sans frontières. Meeting with over a dozen of us at RsF headquarters Oct, 18, Julliard, who became its secretary general two years ago,…