ABSTRACT

France considers itself a power which seeks, with all available means, to preserve or expand its freedom to act. By virtue of the exemplary nature of its political relations with the USSR, France was able, during the 1960s, to upgrade its international position, at least in Europe. The ideological and power stuggle with Soviet-style communism has indeed caused the cooperative elements of French policy towards the East to fade into the background since Mitterrand took office. The Eastern trade policy pursued by General de Gaulle and his successor Pompidou caused very little controversy in France. Up to 1975 the USSR was France's biggest export market for machine tools and equipment for the chemical industry, until, starting in the middle of the 1970s, semi-finished products from the smelter industry began to play a bigger role. The "withdrawal treatment", which Francois Mitterrand ordered for France after his election, is however coming-up against the limitations set, even among socialists, by material interests.