Bilans d’évènement

Special Luncheon with Jean-Pierre Raffarin

The French-Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry was pleased to welcome Mr. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former French Prime Minister, during the special Luncheon. As a grand connoisseur of Asian affairs Mr. Raffarin delivered during the luncheon a presentation themed on the relationship between Europe and Asia under the new global framework. The event saw around 70 participants representing companies from around the globe.

The Event

The first guest speaker, Hak-hee Jo reminded the audience of the historic importance of French-Korean economic exchanges.  Through president’s Moon Jae-in state visit in France he exposed current cooperation between both nations.

Following this, Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s speech warned about the dangers of unilateralism citing various examples such as the USA’s Iran deal withdrawal. An ideology represented by figures such as Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Recep Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. Jean-Pierre Raffarin stressed the needs for greater cooperation not between Europe and Asia but between the ‘democratic West and East part of Eurasia’ in order to assist each other against the rise of unilateralism which seems to be the new way of global governance. He stressed that ‘Eurasia’ needed to develop a new way of multilateralism in opposition to these unilateral ideals. Explaining that in 40 years of public service he had never seen such a dangerous world, Jean-Pierre Raffarin recalled that the opening of the dialogue between South Korea and North Korea this year was an invaluable hope for the world.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin asserted that democratic Asian countries such as Korea could help Europe become more powerful in their discussion with Russia and the USA. Consequentially, Europe could help democratic Asian countries to have a more balancing force toward China. Stressing that China will never be thinking with a balancing force ideal, Raffarin denoted that European democracies are now not strong enough in front of authoritarian regime. For Jean-Pierre Raffarin we therefore need to discuss together on a new democracy and a new economy in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. We need to discuss our future; otherwise we would be left behind because of other countries unilateral agenda. The speech ended with a message to Korea and to ‘Eurasia’; explaining that he and his friends were ready to work with these countries. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session then by a lunch between all participants in a convivial ambiance.