Sylvie Bermann

Sylvie-Agnès Bermann (born 19 October 1953) is a French career diplomat and the current Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom. Mme Bermann previously served as French Ambassador to China in Beijing from 2011 until 2014, prior to which she was Director for United Nations, International Organizations, Human Rights and Francophony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (France) in Paris.

A graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies ("Sciences Po"), the French Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales where she studied Chinese, and the Beijing International Studies University, Mme Bermann embarked on her diplomatic career in 1979.

Vice-Consul at the French Consulate General in Hong Kong from 1979 to 1980, she became Third Secretary, then Second Secretary, at the French Embassy in China between 1980 and 1982.

She was subsequently responsible for policy relating to China/Hong Kong/Taiwan at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (France) until 1986, when she became Second Counsellor at the French Embassy in Moscow. In 1989, Sylvie Bermann returned to Paris to take up the post of Head of the Southeast Asia Department, where she remained until 1992.

In 1992 she was appointed Second Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York. In 1996, she became Head of the Common Foreign and Security Policy Department at the French Foreign Ministry, before becoming Ambassador as Permanent Representative of France to the Western European Union and to the European Union´s Political and Security Committee (PSC) in Brussels in 2002.

She headed the French Foreign Ministry´s directorate for the UN and international organizations, human rights and Francophony, from December 2005 to February 2011.

She was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to China on 23 February 2011, becoming the first woman to hold the post of French Ambassador in a country which is a permanent member of the Security Council. She became French Ambassador to the United Kingdom in August 2014.

• Officier, Légion d'honneur (2012)
• Officier, Ordre national du Mérite (2008).

• www.legifrance.gouv.fr