François Rivasseau

François Rivasseau combined legal training with a diplomatic career focused on the United Nations and arms control. He worked in the foreign ministry's UN directorate, became deputy representative at the Conference on Disarmament, and later served as the ministry's spokesman. From 2003 to 2006 he headed France's delegation to the disarmament conference. ¹

He served as deputy chief of mission in Washington from 2007 to 2011. While acting as chargé d'affaires in January 2011, he accepted the return of a Degas painting stolen from a museum in Le Havre in 1973. American investigators had identified the work in an auction catalogue and arranged its restitution. Rivasseau used the handover to recognize cooperation between the two countries' law enforcement agencies. ^{1, 2}

His next assignments moved into European diplomacy: deputy head of the EU delegation in Washington, then responsibility for security policy and space at the European External Action Service. In September 2018 he presented credentials as France's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva. ¹