Some were ecclesiastical, like improving relations with the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, organizing an historic inter-religious prayer service in Assisi in 1986, and seeking rapprochement with Communist governments.

Others were geopolitical, attempting to prevent international violence, arranging an exchange of prisoners, or bearing witness to the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis.

Etchegaray was elected Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals and served from 30 April 2005[9] until 10 June 2017, when he was relieved from the duties of his position at his own request.

[7] He was a key organizer among others of the first World Day of Prayer for Peace that brought together more than 160 religious leaders in Assisi on 27 October 1986.

[14] The meeting underscored an easing of tensions between Church and state in the officially atheist country, where practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been objects of government repression for almost 30 years.

[16] In December 1985, he led a Vatican team invited by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to visit prisoners of war held in Iran.

[18] In June 1994, amidst the violence of the Rwandan genocide, he visited the site where three bishops were assassinated and officiated at their funeral.

[19][20] The Vatican opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and sent Cardinal Etchegaray as an envoy to persuade Iraqi authorities to cooperate with the United Nations in order to avoid war.

[21][22] In 2003 he received the journalistic prize Golden Doves for Peace awarded by the Italian Research Institute Archivio Disarmo.

[30] Etchegaray returned to Bayonne, France, in January 2017, to live with his sister Maité (d. 13 February 2018) in a retirement home in Cambo-les-Bains near Espelette, the village where he was born.

Catholic News Agency journalist Andrea Gagliarducci described Cardinal Etchegary's retirement from Rome as "the end of an era".