President of the Republic, Michel Suleiman, represented by outgoing Minister of Economy and Trade Nicolas Nahas, decorated Senator Christiane Kammermann, representing French citizens residing outside France, the Order of National Cedar , Officer grade, and during an official ceremony at the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut, in the presence of MP Marwan Hamadeh, former Minister Ibrahim Najjar, the permanent ambassador of Lebanon to UNESCO Khalil Karam, and an audience of political and diplomatic Lebanese and French figures.

This gold medal Lebanese Merit is the sign of "appreciation of the work of Senator Kammermann in the context of the consolidation of Lebanese-French relations and services to the Lebanese for several years," noted Minister Nahas.

For her part, Kammermann gave a speech in which she thanked the Head of State.

She reiterated the continued support of the Lebanese people in France, and ended her speech with the famous Gebran Khalil Gebran's quote: "If Lebanon was not my country, I would have chosen Lebanon as my country."