Former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine arrives for a state dinner for Lebanon's President at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on September 25, 2017. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)
PARIS- Former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine has said that Western countries should reflect on their foreign policy and interventions in recent decades and reinvent peaceful coexistence with others.
Human rights are "a certain part" of foreign policy, but "no foreign policy can be based only on them (human rights); no Western foreign policy can completely get rid of them. So it will depend on the specific case," Vedrine told Le Figaro, a French daily, on March 4.
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Vedrine said he believes the need of people to respect the fundamental rights will grow as society develops, while "I'm at the same time sceptical and dubious with Western interference to impose it (the need of people to respect the fundamental rights)."
"I have the gravest doubts as to those who think the West has 'the right to humanize' the world after evangelizing it," he said, adding "in any case, it does not work. Western interventions in recent decades should give pause for thought and encourage greater modesty."
