Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, born in 1953 in Paris, joined the diplomatic service in 1978. After several postings in the Foreign Ministry and abroad, he was appointed Ambassador in Tokyo (1998-2002). He then worked at the French President’s Office from 2002 to 2007 as the senior diplomatic adviser to President Jacques Chirac as well as Sherpa of G7/G8. During that period, he was in charge of the strategic dialogues with India and China. He went on to become the French Ambassador in London (2007-11), Berlin (2011-14) and Beijing (2014-17). He ended his career as secretary general of the French Ministry of Foreign affairs (deputy secretary of state) from 2017 to 2019. In this position, he was also the special envoy of French...