Pierre Lellouche appointed to the “Afghanistan-Pakistan contact group”

The Elysée has confirmed this by making its mission statement public. Pierre Lellouche, Member of the National Assembly, was appointed "Special Representative of France for Afghanistan and Pakistan".

He thus comes to join the contact group formed around the American ambassador Richard Holbrooke, appointed special envoy for the region by Barack Obama, and the EU special representative already on the spot, the German diplomat Klaus-Peter Klaiber. For its part, Germany has already appointed a special envoy for the region, Bernd Muetzelberg, its ambassador to India. And the UK too. The principle of operation of this "contact group" takes up the system set up for Bosnia in the 1990s precisely around Ambassador Holbrooke.

Lellouche is one of the French deputies, strategy and defense specialists, rather classified as "Atlanticist" who approved, against Chirac and Villepin, the US military intervention in Iraq in 2003. He is the author of a report on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. And notably chaired the NATO parliamentary assembly from November 2004 to November 2006. His blog

La Engagement letter of President Sarkozy asks for "propose all the initiatives that you deem useful to our interests, so that decisions are taken in the appropriate framework". She gives him the mandate to "participate in discussions with our allies and partners" et "in liaison with the ambassadors to develop contacts with the Afghan and Pakistani authorities". The deputy will have the means "that will be made available to you by all the ministries concerned, in particular those of Foreign and European Affairs; of the defense ; economy, industry and employment; interior, overseas and local authorities". "A unit bringing together the resources made available to you by the various administrations concerned will be created at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs" to assist him. Read the engagement letter.