Sylvie BERMANN

Bio

Former French ambassador to China (2011-2014), the United Kingdom (2014-2017) and Russia (2017-2019). She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979 and was Vice-Consul in Hong Kong. She was then posted to the French Embassy in Beijing (1980-1982) and Moscow (1986-1989). She served at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York (1992-1996). At headquarters she held a number of posts in the Asia Directorate, including deputy director for South-East Asia, where she organised the peace conference on Cambodia, and then head of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) department. She was then appointed Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee (PSC) of the European Union in Brussels (2002-2005) before returning to the Quai d'Orsay as Director of the United Nations and International Organisations (2005-2011). She was appointed Ambassador of France in 2019. Since January 2020, she has been President of the Board of Directors of the IHEDN (Institut des hautes études de défense nationale), a member of the Board of Directors of the Jacques Delors Institute, Notre Europe, and a trustee of the RUSI (Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies) think tank in London. From July 2021 to February 2022 she was OSCE mediator for the implementation of the Minsk agreements on Ukraine. Since January 2023, she has been a professor at the École d'Affaires Internationales de Sciences Po (PSIA, Paris School of International Affairs). Since 2020, on behalf of GIFEN (Groupement des Industriels français de l'énergie nucléaire), she has chaired the WNE (World Nuclear Exhibition), the world's largest civil nuclear forum, which takes place every two years in Paris (2021 and 2023). Education: History degree from La Sorbonne, diploma in Chinese from the Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), diploma from the Beijing Language Institute and the Institut des Sciences Politiques de Paris. Publications: La Chine en eaux profondes Stock 2017; Goodbye Britannia Stock 2021, English version: Au revoir Britannia Luath 2022; Madame l'Ambassadeur, de Pékin à Moscou Tallandier 2022 Awards: Commander of the National Order of Merit, Commander of the Legion of Honour.