Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

No matter how advanced the Netherlands' technology is, it's still a NATO member and fundamentally follows the US model; Denmark, no matter how efficient, is still within the Western camp's sphere of influence. France, however, is different—it's the most independent major power in the Western camp, the one that dared to withdraw from NATO's military command structure in 1966, and has maintained dialogue and trade with Moscow for decades.

Cooperation with France faces the least resistance and allows for the most relaxed approach. Moreover, once agricultural technology cooperation with France, a major Western power, is initiated, it will be much easier to negotiate with the Netherlands and Denmark later.

France is the most suitable key to unlock the door to Western technology.

Chapter 88 We do not promise to renounce the use of force to unify Germany

Paris, January 28, 1988

The plane landed at 2 PM.

A red carpet was laid out on the runway of Orly Airport, at the end of which stood a contingent of the Republican Guard. Bronze helmets, white gloves, sabers—sunlight shone on the red tassels on the helmets. At least in appearances, France had given them ample face.

Slava and Director Nian sat in the back of the armored car, looking out through the tinted windows. The honor guard was being inspected, and the officers' commands drifted over from afar, filtered through the glass to only a muffled sound.

“I’ve had my share of setbacks here since you were working in Ukraine,” Director Nian suddenly said.

Slava turned to look at her.

"That old bastard Shevardnadze never did a single day of diplomacy, and he didn't speak any foreign languages. Gorbachev sent him to France, and in the end, wasn't it me, the acting minister, who came to France to negotiate? I was surrounded and bombarded with questions one after another."

"It was quite an experience for me to debate with a group of scholars all by myself. Now, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I'm returning to this place. The tables have turned!"

“It’s great to revisit this place,” Slava said. “It’s great to be in the old revolutionary base area.”

Director Nian glanced at him.

"The more I learn about these developed capitalist countries, the more I realize the gap between us."

Slava looked at the gleaming bronze helmets at the end of the red carpet, pointed to the street scene and said, "Look at this, how prosperous it is! We can only take a difficult path for the sake of equality and to ensure that no one is forgotten."

This path is slow, incredibly slow, much slower than those socialist brothers who are on the fast track. They can sacrifice some people for efficiency, developing themselves first. As for what happens afterward—that's left to future generations.”

The car moved forward a little, and the music of the honor guard could be faintly heard.

"Then why don't you go with them?" Director Nian asked knowingly.

Of course she knew the answer.

"On the one hand, we have to realize that ideal for our mentor, and we can't push everything onto future generations. Someone has to pay the debts we owed over the past few decades."

"On the other hand?"

"On the other hand, we had no choice. Look at China now, carrying out reforms. Isn't it a mix of crisis and opportunity? But at least they had Chairman Mao's prestige to keep them in check, so any discontent could be suppressed. What about the Soviet Union?"

"After all these years of ups and downs, the mentor's credit card must have been maxed out long ago. Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev... every leader claimed to be Lenin's most loyal student and the most steadfast follower of Lenin's line. Everyone said that, even Gorbachev!"

The consequence of everyone using credit cards is that by the time the card reached me, the credit limit was already negative.

Slava looked out the window: "I'm paying off this credit card debt right now. If I keep swiping it like this, people won't buy it. We have to earn back our credit little by little. Others can enjoy things first and pay off the debt later, but I have to pay off the debt first, and only after I've paid it off can I enjoy things."

"It's hard to say. We'll probably have to wait until we meet our mentor to enjoy it." Director Nian punched Slava's leg.

The car stopped, and a ceremonial officer in front gestured for passengers to get out.

Director Nian straightened his coat and got out of the car with Slava on either side. At that moment, a French official came forward, greeted them in French, and then extended his hand toward the red carpet.

The band started playing, first "La Marseillaise," then the Soviet national anthem. Slava stood still, listening to the two pieces play one after the other.

Director Nian stood half a step to his side and spoke in a voice that only the two of them could hear:

"This show of force means Mitterrand needs your help."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Slava knew what Director Nian meant by those words.

How a country receives you is never based on how important you are, but on how much it needs you. Mitterrand didn't give Gorbachev this kind of treatment when he visited France, but now that Gorbachev is here as General Secretary, Mitterrand has brought it all out. That's quite something.

Before coming, Slava thoroughly investigated François Mitterrand's background.

This is a tough, old politician.

In his youth, he was an anti-communist socialist. His alliance with the French Communist Party was purely a strategic marriage in the 1970s, and he never truly considered the Communists as his own.

After becoming president in 1981, he was very cold towards Moscow: SS-20 missile deployment, Afghanistan, martial law in Poland... France led the delegation throughout. During his visit to the Soviet Union in 1984, he dared to publicly name Sakharov in front of Chernenko at a dinner in the Kremlin—the first head of state to do so at a Kremlin table.

This is the same person who is now being treated with such great ceremony by a Soviet delegation that has only come to discuss agricultural cooperation.

Anyone who didn't know better would think that France and the Soviet Union were getting married.

For such a person to adopt this posture, Slava could almost certainly conclude that his position was unstable.

Mitterrand is now in an awkward position. The right wing won the 1986 French parliamentary elections, forcing him, a left-wing president, to appoint the right-wing Jacques Chirac as prime minister to form a coalition government.

The president and prime minister belong to opposing camps but share executive power—the French call this co-governance. Now, these awkward two years are almost over, and Chirac just officially announced his presidential candidacy this January, aiming for Mitterrand's seat!

According to the conventions of the French constitution, foreign affairs and defense are reserved for the president. This is almost the only political arena that Mitterrand can currently control without having to share with Chirac.

So this visit by the Soviet Union was a golden opportunity for him: a free, presidential-level television appearance!

He wanted to use this footage to tell all the voters in France who the real leaders of this country are!

As Slava sat in the car heading to the Élysée Palace, he had already grasped most of the situation. Mitterrand needed his help, and urgently! This meant the initiative was on his side.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The Golden Hall of the Élysée Palace is not large.

The walls are covered with gold wainscoting from the Louis XV era, crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and a large mirror above the fireplace reflects the entire room into another room.

This is Mitterrand's private office. Inviting guests here, instead of the large festival hall used for filming ceremonies, is a signal of the highest level of intimacy—this is where real business is to be conducted.

Mitterrand waited for the two at the door. The photographer came in to take pictures. Slava and Mitterrand stood in front of the fireplace. One was the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and the other was the President of France. They shook hands and smiled at the camera.

"Clap!"

The shutter captured the moment. Tomorrow this photo will be on the front page of every French newspaper, with headlines like "President Meets with New Moscow Leader," which is exactly what Mitterrand wanted.

After the photographer left, only a few people remained in the room: Mitterrand, Slava, the director, and two men who hadn't spoken much beside Mitterrand. Slava recognized them—one was Hubert Vedrine, the president's foreign affairs advisor and Mitterrand's most important diplomatic informant; the other was the chief of staff.

After sitting down with a notebook in his hand, Verdrina began to take notes.

After they were seated, Mitterrand began with some pleasantries. He spoke of the long history between France and Russia, of Peter the Great, and of the interactions that spanned two centuries. Slava noticed that he didn't mention socialism or any ideological affinity whatsoever—this old anti-communist would never allow himself to sound like he was trying to curry favor with Moscow.

Slava understood this, and he responded with a few words along the historical line, before steering the conversation in a direction that Mitterrand had never expected.

“Mr. President, it’s been a long time, I’ve missed you very much!” Slava said. “What I really wanted to see during this trip was your country’s food industry.”

Mitterrand's eyebrows twitched.

"Oh, right, there's also breeding research." Slava spoke as if he were talking about a personal matter that he truly cared about.

"I've heard that the French National Institute for Agricultural Research is the best in Europe when it comes to crop breeding! Our Soviet Union is currently trying to diversify its agriculture to enrich people's diets, but we're far behind in this area. We can't breed any varieties of fast-growing vegetables, cold-resistant ones, or short-day varieties."

We're complete novices when it comes to food processing, preservation, and refrigerated transportation. I'm here today hoping to learn more about agriculture.

"By the way, I think your food processing technology is quite good. Two months ago, Deng Xixian recommended it to me at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, saying that your croissants are delicious, tasty and crumbly. I want to try your French specialty for dinner. By the way, could you introduce some packaging technology..." Slava rambled on like this, clearly waiting for Mitterrand to name a price.

Even if Mitterrand was stupid, he would understand that the Soviet General Secretary hadn't flown all the way to Paris just to ask a few technical questions about growing and storing vegetables.

But he also knew that starting to talk about prices would put him at a disadvantage, so he really hoped to steer the conversation to something truly important—to Franco-Soviet relations, to disarmament, to Germany.

Those are the things that heads of state should discuss, and that is the purpose of Mitterrand's entire ceremonial procession.

What could Koslava do when he kept talking about cucumbers and tomatoes?

The more Slava lowered his stance and talked only about agriculture, the more frustrated Mitterrand became—because Mitterrand had a bellyful of worries and a whole set of political calculations waiting to be implemented, while the other party seemed to have no intention of giving him that opportunity at all.

Slava then spoke leisurely about the food industry for a while, asking how frozen vegetables are processed in France and how large the germplasm resource bank for breeding is. The director occasionally chimed in with a comment or two.

Mitterrand was now truly experiencing what it meant to be imprisoned for days on end, and his energy and spirit were quickly waning.

The morning meeting was scheduled by Mitterrand's side. Slava had done his homework beforehand—Mitterrand was in poor health, and although he didn't reveal a word about it to outsiders, Slava knew that his energy would be noticeably low in the afternoon.

Anyway, it wasn't the Soviet Union that was in a hurry. Slava just wanted to delay the topic until the afternoon, so that Mitterrand could finish this crucial meeting when he was at his worst.

In fact, Mitterrand had been diagnosed with prostate cancer for two years at this time, but he had not made it public yet. Slava took advantage of this patient and bullied him relentlessly.

He might have felt a little guilty on moral grounds, but he was the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and everything he talked about was related to the country, the lives of millions of people, and the nation itself!

Sure enough, before Slava could finish discussing breeding, Mitterrand couldn't hold on any longer.

He put down his teacup and leaned forward slightly: "Mr. General Secretary, I am very willing to discuss agricultural cooperation, and I can tell you right now that what France can offer in this regard will exceed your expectations."

Slava remained silent, smiling as he watched Mitterrand continue.

"But before that, there are a few things I would like to exchange views with you."

“Okay, I’m all ears.” Slava sat up straighter.

We've gained the upper hand.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The first thing Mitterrand wanted to talk about was exactly what Slava had expected.

"We hope that relations between France and the Soviet Union will return to where they should be."

“Actually, we also hope to return it to its original position,” Slava said.

Mitterrand only hoped for Franco-Soviet friendship, and that such friendship would be facilitated by him; but Slava hoped that France would be directly reddened, and that the Paris Commune would happen again, which would also be called returning to its original position.

"I am glad that we were able to reach an agreement."

What Mitterrand wanted was to restore the "special Franco-Soviet relationship" of the de Gaulle era—France's status as the most independent major power in the Western camp, capable of engaging in dialogue with Moscow alone. But he wanted to restore it in his own name, not to make it seem like he was simply picking up de Gaulle's legacy; he needed a Moscow moment that belonged to François Mitterrand.

Slava could provide this, because it would be advantageous to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union desperately wanted a major power within the Western bloc willing to align itself with Moscow independently.

"France's position in Europe is unique, and the Soviet Union has always valued this and hoped to establish a relationship with France that no other Western country could provide."

Mr. President, if you wish, we can use this meeting as a prelude to a higher-level summit. I would very much welcome your official visit to Moscow at that time.

Mitterrand's expression softened slightly. Slava could tell that those words had struck a nerve.

Mitterrand continued, "Another matter concerns the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) signed by the US and the Soviet Union."

Slava knew what he meant. Although Gorbachev and Reagan had broken up in Reykjavik, the Soviet Union later split the contents of that meeting into several separate treaties, bypassing the SDI issue and signing a treaty with the United States on joint arms reduction.

But what is France worried about? Because France is nominally a member of NATO, and the treaties signed by the US and the Soviet Union, especially the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, require the reduction of nuclear missiles. What should France do?

"France welcomes this treaty. The reduction of missiles by the Soviet Union and the United States is a good thing for peace in Europe, and we also support the continued reduction of conventional armaments after this."

"But there is one thing I must make clear: France's nuclear forces are an independent strategic deterrent, and they do not belong to any disarmament framework between the United States and the Soviet Union. There is no room for negotiation on this point."

This is the red line. Slava knew Mitterrand would draw this line, and France made sure to mention it to every Soviet visitor. France's biggest fear was that its small independent nuclear force would be dragged into the US-Soviet disarmament negotiations and used as a bargaining chip.

France cannot fall to the same level as Britain; at least Britain is still one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council that can fight.

Slava could agree to this. The Soviet Union had no intention of touching France's nuclear weapons; its real concern was conventional forces and the strategic balance between the US and the USSR. France's few nuclear weapons weren't worth offending France for.

"Mr. President, the Soviet Union has never included France's independent nuclear deterrence in any US-Soviet disarmament issue, nor will it ever do so. This is France's sovereignty, and what we hope to advance is the reduction of conventional armaments—on this point, I think our positions are aligned."

Slava only mentioned the issue of US-Soviet disarmament, and Mitterrand didn't pay much attention to it. After all, the United States was so powerful that it was unlikely to fall, and the Soviet Union would continue to deal with the United States for at least the next half century. France only needed to quietly make a fortune behind the United States.

Shouldn't that be okay?

Mitterrand nodded, looking much more relaxed. Slava had agreed to two things for him, both readily and decisively. Mitterrand was probably starting to think that this new Soviet leader might be easier to deal with than the rumors suggested.

Then Mitterrand brought up the third thing, and Slava wasn't going to let him off easy on this one.

"There's another problem, Germany."

Slava remained unmoved.

"Mr. General Secretary, I would like to hear the Soviet Union's thoughts on the German question."

Mitterrand spoke slowly: "What will happen to two Germanys in the future?"

This was Mitterrand's deepest worry, and Slava knew it all too well.

Mitterrand's biggest fear was that the Soviet Union would play the Germany card—using the prospect of German reunification as bait to lure West Germany away from NATO and the European Community!

If West Germany were to break away from the Western camp, the strategic balance of the entire Europe would be overturned. All of France's efforts over the past few centuries to deal with Germany have been aimed at preventing Germany from becoming that behemoth that stood in the center of Europe, unstoppable by anyone.

A unified Germany that does not side with the West is France's oldest nightmare!

For Gorbachev, this concern wasn't as severe. Gorbachev cared about how the West viewed him and the image of the Soviet Union in their eyes; he would speak eloquently and adopt a conciliatory stance to appease the West. Mitterrand could rest assured talking to such a person.

But Slava is not Gorbachev.

After Slava came to power, the Soviet Union did not retreat militarily; instead, it pushed forward. That year, taking advantage of the United States' inability to recover, the Soviet Union extended its reach throughout the Third World, actively intervening in and supporting the communist movement, and in Africa, it supported a large number of resistance forces to oppose France.

A month earlier, when China and the Soviet Union announced their friendship, the Soviet Union also publicly supported the One China principle—Slava directly expressed to the world his understanding and respect for China's policy of not renunciation of the use of force to reclaim its territory.

So in Mitterrand's mind, Slava was something completely different from Gorbachev. This short man stabilized the domestic situation and then turned his attention to being tough on foreign countries. Some people in the West had already given him a nickname, calling him "Little Stalin."

Slava probably knew his image in the West. Mitterrand wasn't dealing with a reformer who wanted to integrate into the West, but a new leader who had straightened out the domestic situation and now wanted to integrate the West into the Soviet Union.