Israel’s Ambassador to France, Meir Rosenne, accused the French government last night of bringing Franco-Israeli economic relations to a virtual standstill since the beginning of the war in Lebanon last June. He charged that decisions taken at the meeting of the Franco-Israeli joint economic commission which last met in April, have not been implemented and the French have attempted to slow down all commercial exchanges between the two countries.
Addressing an Israel Bond dinner, Rosenne cited as examples of the economic “freeze” the failure to sign an agreement for mutual investments, failure to carry out joint projects in Africa, failure to follow through on exchanges of scientific delegations and cancellation of a planned visit to Israel by the French Minister of Tourism.
The Israeli envoy said that despite those developments, trade between France and Israel increased by seven percent this year. But it was due to private initiatives, he said.
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