My guest is Joao Validaameda.

Joao Valida Amadeh Meda.

Joire Valida Meda is a former senior EU diplomat and the author of a new book, The Divorce of Nations,

and Diplomats' View as the Global Order Collapses to be published on the 3rd of April,

but available for pre-order now.

Welcome to the podcast, Joire.

Thank you. Thank you, Paul, for inviting me. Right. We're going to talk about the Welcome to the podcast, Joach. Thank you.

Thank you, Paul, for inviting me.

Right.

We're going to talk about the book in a second, Joire.

But before we do that, I'd like you to take us back a bit to how you got into this EU diplomacy world in your career.

We can't go too far back because your career maybe goes quite a far way back. But I like you to start, and you tell the story in the book,

about your first encounter with Zouzzi Manuel Barroso,

when he became president of the European Commission.

You hadn't met before, is that correct?

But then for some reason, he offered you the post of Chief of Staff,

Sheffter Gamini, and Sherpa.

Tell us about that first meeting.

Well, I'm a recovering European official after 41 years of career. So I was the first Portuguese

hired by my European Commission even before Portugal joined. So I made my career in Lisbon,

in our mission there, then Brussels for a few years.

And then came Joseph Moura Bourgeois, who had been selected, appointed and elected by the

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