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Sarkozy congratulates Obama on Nobel Peace Prize

The following is a letter sent by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to congratulate U.S. President Barack Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize today: President Obama,   I was delighted to learn of the decision of the jury in Oslo to award you this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for your extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and ...

The following is a letter sent by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to congratulate U.S. President Barack Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize today:

The following is a letter sent by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to congratulate U.S. President Barack Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize today:

President Obama,

 

I was delighted to learn of the decision of the jury in Oslo to award you this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for your extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and international cooperation.

I want to express to you, you personally and the American people, my warmest congratulations.

By awarding you its most prestigious prize, the Committee is rewarding your determined commitment to human rights, justice and spreading peace across the world, in accordance with the will of its founder Alfred Nobel. It also does justice to your vision of tolerance and dialogue between States, cultures and civilizations.  Finally, it sets the seal on America’s return to the heart of all the world’s peoples.

I am particularly happy that this Prize is awarded to you today because I know it will bolster your determination to act for justice, for peace and to safeguard the planet’s global balance. I am convinced that everyone, all over the world, will draw from this an even stronger determination to cooperate with you and with America to achieve these common objectives.

I can tell you that on this path you will be able to count on my steadfast support and that of France.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin

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