It gave me great pleasure to accept the invitation from M. Boucheron and M. Cornut-Gentille to introduce the debates of this 14^th parliamentary meeting on peace and defence–a pleasure in itself but also a highly topical one.

Each year these meetings confirm the extremely strong links which exist between our democratic political system and defence. They also highlight the responsibilities which these two spheres of our national life bear towards each other. In this year of democratic debate these meetings obviously take on a particular dimension, in enabling all those whom they bring together to debate the decisive issue of defence calmly and in depth.

I don’t want to fall into the trap of attempting, in this opening speech, to discuss the whole range of questions which you are going to debate, and to anticipate your answers. I would simply like to give you some thoughts on what I will call the military question, as it applies to our country. I would just like to pick out three points: what defines this question, how we respond to it today and what it implies for tomorrow.