Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith (front, third right) attends the Francophone Summit in France.

French president calls for robust support from Francophonie community

PARIS, France: The President of France has called on the Francophonie countries to actively work together to bolster French influence worldwide, with a special appeal to countries with French roots in Africa and Southeast Asia, including Laos.
President Emmanuel Macron made the appeal at the opening of the 19th Francophonie Summit in France on Friday, which he said he hoped would help to boost French language influence in a world beset by crises.

President Thongloun Sisoulith (second from left).

The 19th Francophonie Summit is a major event diplomatically, politically, economically and culturally, with the French language as a common thread.
The first day of the summit took place at the Cité Internationale de la Langue Française in Villers-Cotterêts, a place entirely dedicated to the French language and French-speaking cultures, and continued for a second day in Paris on Saturday.
The President of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Déby, an ally of France and a regular visitor to Paris, was a prominent guest, as was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with President Macron hosting dozens of leaders of French-speaking countries.
Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, Lao Minister of Education and Sports, Associate Prof. Dr Phout Simmalavong, and senior Lao government officials were scheduled to attend the summit, the first time it has been held in France for 33 years.
“The Francophonie is a space of diplomatic influence that allows us to embrace the challenges of the century,” declared the French president at the opening of the 19th Francophonie Summit, saying the grouping is committed to continuing its efforts to establish lasting peace.
The French president also announced the launch of a “collection of literary works of reference of the Francophonie”, which will be made available in several languages.

He invited young entrepreneurs to count on French as a vector in commercial relations, adding that the number of French speakers, which currently exceeds 300 million people, is expected to double in the coming decades.
President Macron also spoke about the upcoming launch of the Francophone Alliance of Intellectual Property.
Vietnam hosted the 7th Francophonie Summit in 1997 in Hanoi and Laos hosted the 23rd Francophonie Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane in 2007.
To promote the learning and teaching of the French language, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism compiled and published Le Rénovateur magazine. There also radio and television programmes that feature French broadcasts, as well as a French version of the KPL news.
Le Rénovateur was the first French-language publication in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and was introduced in 1998 to promote use of the French language in Laos in line with government policy.

By Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth
 (Latest Update October 7, 2024)