information:extraction
Foreign policy

De Gaulle hosted a superpower summit on 17 May 1960 for arms limitation talks and détente efforts in the wake of the 1960 U-2 incident between United States President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. When Khrushchev condemned the United States U-2 flights, de Gaulle expressed to Khrushchev his disapproval of 18 near-simultaneous secret Soviet satellite overflights of French territory; Khrushchev denied knowledge of the overflights. Lieutenant General Vernon A. Walters was struck by de Gaulle's "unconditional support" of the United States during that "crucial time". De Gaulle then tried to revive the talks by inviting all the delegates to another conference at the Élysée Palace to discuss the situation, but the summit ultimately dissolved in the wake of the U-2 incident.

In February 1966, France withdrew from the NATO Military Command Structure but remained within the organisation. De Gaulle wanted France to remain the master of the decisions affecting it; he also ordered all foreign military personnel to leave France within a year. This latter action, in particular, was poorly received in the US.

De Gaulle established a good relationship with West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer —culminating in the Elysee Treaty in 1963—and in the first few years of the Common Market, France's industrial exports to the other five members tripled and its farm export almost quadrupled. The franc became a solid, stable currency for the first time in half a century, and the economy mostly boomed. De Gaulle vetoed the British application to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1963, and again in June 1967. In June 1965, after France and the other five members could not agree, de Gaulle withdrew France's representatives from the EC. Their absence left the organisation essentially unable to run its affairs until the Luxembourg compromise was reached in January 1966. De Gaulle succeeded in influencing the decision-making mechanism written into the Treaty of Rome by insisting on solidarity founded on mutual understanding.

In January 1964, France was, after the UK, among the first of the major Western powers to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). By recognizing Mao Zedong 's government, de Gaulle signaled to both Washington and Moscow that France intended to deploy an independent foreign policy. The move was criticized in the United States as it seemed to seriously damage US policy of containment in Asia. De Gaulle justified this action by "the weight of evidence and reason", considering that China's demographic weight and geographic extent put it in a position to have a global leading role. De Gaulle also used this opportunity to arouse rivalry between the USSR and China. In September 1966, in a famous speech in Phnom Penh in Cambodia, he expressed France's disapproval of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, calling for a withdrawal.

With tension rising in the Middle East in 1967, de Gaulle declared an arms embargo against Israel on 2 June, just three days before the outbreak of the Six-Day War. This, however, did not affect spare parts for the French military hardware with which the Israeli armed forces were equipped. Under de Gaulle, following the independence of Algeria, France embarked on foreign policy more favorable to the Arab side. President de Gaulle's position in 1967 at the time of the Six-Day War played a part in France's new-found popularity in the Arab world. In his letter to David Ben-Gurion dated 9 January 1968, de Gaulle expressed conviction that Israel had ignored his warnings and overstepped the bounds of moderation by taking the territory of neighbouring countries by force, believing that it amounted to annexation, and considered withdrawing from these areas the best course of action.

Under de Gaulle's leadership, France supported the breakaway Republic of Biafra against the Nigerian government during the Nigerian Civil War. Although French arms helped to keep Biafra in action for the final 15 months of the civil war, its involvement was seen as insufficient and counterproductive. The Biafran chief of staff stated that the French "did more harm than good by raising false hopes and by providing the British with an excuse to reinforce Nigeria."

In July 1967, during a visit to Canada, de Gaulle shouted " Vive le Québec libre ! Vive le Canada français! Et vive la France! " (Long live free Quebec! Long live French Canada, and long live France!) to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal 's city hall; de Gaulle abruptly left Canada two days later. The speech was heavily criticized in both Canada and France, but was seen as a watershed moment by the Quebec sovereignty movement.