The new French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot has promised to support efforts to protect human rights around the world. He took over from his predecessor, Stéphane Séjourné on Monday.
"This ministry will be fully mobilised whenever fundamental freedoms, human rights and minority rights are in danger," the 41-year-old centrist said during the handover ceremony in Paris.
He promised to "defend international law."
"The prosperity of France and Europe cannot be built in isolation from the rest of the world," he said, before flying to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The new head of French diplomacy also promised support to Iranian and Afghan women.
"I say this to Iranian women, and I say this to girls in Afghanistan: I have heard your distress call. You are not alone, we will stand by your side."
They are "not alone", he said.
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Democracy under attack
Barrot listed four "challenges" he believes the world is facing: peace, climate, democracy and prosperity.
"We are living in a time of geopolitical crises of exceptional gravity. Never has the international order been subjected to such violent winds that want to tear it down, to replace it with an international order based on force," he said.
He mentioned Ukraine, the Middle East, Haiti, the Great Lakes region, the South China Sea, where he said his ministry would "defend international law with all its might in the service of a just peace."
"Democracy is under attack from all sides. Our country is the target and the target of the enemies of democracy. France will defend itself against all foreign interference, against all hybrid threats," he added.
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Profoundly European
Previously junior minister in charge of Europe, Barrot's nomination at the Foreign office is seen a sign of President Emmanuel Macron's determination to keep a firm grip on his 'reserved domain,' according to analysts.
Vice-president of the centre-right MoDem party, he is the fourth French Foreign Minister since Emmanuel Macron was first elected president in 2017, and the third since the start of Macron's second term in 2022.
His career began at the Finance Ministry, as junior minister for digital affairs, from July 2022 to January of this year, which seems more fitted with his degree from HEC business school and his doctorate in management science, with his research interests including corporate finance.
He then arrived at the Quai d'Orsay in February 2024, following a government reshuffle, to replace Laurence Boone.
Son of the former minister and European Commissioner Jacques Barrot, he inherited the legacy of being "a convinced European".
Critics have however described him as living "on his father's reputation".
(with newswires)
