General Secretary and President To Lam: Promoting multilateralism for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future
Within the framework of the Francophone Summit, on October 5 (local time), in Paris (France), General Secretary and President To Lam continued to attend official meetings and delivered an important speech at the conference.
At the conference, the leaders highly appreciated the contributions of the Francophone community in promoting dialogue and peace building, promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, contributing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and responding to global challenges. The leaders also shared concerns about some complicated developments in the recent world situation, especially in the Middle East; emphasized the need to reform multilateral institutions, including Francophone institutions, to enhance operational efficiency and promptly adapt to the trends of the times.
Speaking at the conference's "For a renewed multilateralism" session, General Secretary and President To Lam affirmed the irreplaceable role of multilateral mechanisms, highlighting the contributions of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and Francophone institutions in handling issues of common concern to the international community, as well as the processes of building frameworks and principles for emerging issues.
In order to promote the role of multilateralism, the General Secretary and President emphasized the need to link it with major transformation processes, especially digital transformation and green transformation. The Francophone space also needs to adapt to this trend, supporting members to improve their technological capacity, develop clean energy and successfully implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Science and technology are the key for the Francophone community to create breakthroughs in the future.
To improve the operational efficiency of multilateral institutions, including the OIF, the General Secretary and President affirmed that it is necessary to accelerate reforms to be able to respond to rapid changes in the world situation and the Francophone space. Francophone also needs to innovate in the direction of focusing more on the priorities of its members, especially on economic cooperation and coordination in implementing documents of the Future Summit. Multilateralism can only succeed if it ensures inclusiveness, comprehensiveness, and puts people at the center, especially the young generation.
Accordingly, the General Secretary and President suggested that Francophone continue to promote people-to-people exchange programs, cultural and educational exchanges through French to maintain a beautiful language that unites Francophone members, thereby spreading the results of Francophone cooperation to all people.
On the afternoon of October 5, the closing session of the 19th Francophone Summit took place. After two days of effective and substantive work, the heads of State and Government of Francophone member states unanimously adopted many important documents, including the Villers-Cotterêts Joint Declaration, the Resolution on the political situation and strengthening peace in the Francophone space, and the Declaration on solidarity with Lebanon.
The Villers-Cotterêts Declaration affirms commitment to the common values of the Francophone language: peace, cooperation, sustainable development, and respect for the UN Charter and international law.
The statement emphasizes the efforts of the Francophone community in responding to and resolving common challenges, especially climate change, job creation, and promoting gender equality. The statement calls on member countries to encourage and support cooperation activities in science, technology, innovation, creativity, promoting the digital economy, startups, and promoting public-private partnerships.
The Declaration affirms the commitment to promoting the French language, emphasizing the role of French in training, teaching, creativity, and promoting cultural diversity. The Declaration emphasizes the determination of Francophone member countries to implement sustainable development, ensuring harmony between efforts for growth, poverty eradication, and environmental protection.
The conference also unanimously agreed to accept Ghana and the Republic of Cyprus as full members, bringing the number of OIF members to 93; and admitted Angola, Chile, the Nouvelle-Escosse region (Canada), French Polynesia and the Sarre region (Germany) as observers.
The conference decided to hold the 46th Francophone Ministerial Conference in Côte d'Ivoire in 2025 and the 20th Francophone Summit in Cambodia in 2026. After the 7th Francophone Summit held in Hanoi in 1997, this will be the second time the summit is held in the Asia-Pacific region.
