In France, a summit for diplomacy, technology and diversity

France will host over 100 Heads of states and government and high-ranking officials for the 19th Francophonie Summit on October 4-5, 2024. The summit will take place in Paris and in Villers-Cotterêts, a city where, in 1539, King François I declared French as the country’s official language. It will deal with a number of key international questions that also matter to many non-French-speaking countries, and especially to India. These include the renewal of multilateralism; and major digital issues linked to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as the need to promote cultural and linguistic diversity.

As the famous Senegalese President and poet Léopold Sédar Senghor said, “Francophonie is the integral Humanism.” One of the key messages of the summit will be that: far from being barriers or creating divides, multilingualism and cultural diversity foster mutually beneficial exchanges and collective thinking, and, as such, should be cherished. I have every reason to believe that this spirit, shared by 321 million French speakers across the world, including Puducherry (India), also resonates with India’s own priorities.

Reducing the divide

Founded in 1970, the l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (the International Organization of La Francophonie) is an institution organising relations between countries that use the French language. Prominent statesmen such as Léopold Sédar Senghor, Habib Bourguiba (Tunisia), Hamani Diori (Niger) and Norodom Sihanouk (Cambodia) were among its founding fathers.

The aim of the organisation is to promote the French language and cooperation between its 88 Member States and Governments (54 full-fledged members, seven associate members and 27 observer members). This aim is enshrined in the Charter of La Francophonie, adopted in 1997 at the Hanoi Summit. From the outset, the organisation has been a forum of discussions and projects between countries boasting diverse cultures, economic and geographic situations as well as different political orientations. Francophonie has been promoting democracy, peace, prosperity with the idea of reducing any so-called “North/South divide” as well as bolstering cultural and linguistic diversity. Today, La Francophonie also provides a cooperation framework for key global issues such as digital technology, gender equality, and economic matters, under the leadership of Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo, former Rwandan Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Renewing multilateralism

In the face of a fragmented world, the Summit, which takes place every two years under the leadership of a rotating host country, is meeting to decide on the main orientations of the organisation. For the first time in 33 years, the summit will be hosted by France. Upholding “Create, Innovate and do Business in French”, the theme, a new method of discussion will be followed during the Summit. Civil society stakeholders will be able to exchange more directly with summit officials to promote solutions and explore new avenues for cooperation.

Heads of states and high-ranking officials will deliberate in Paris on how to renew multilateralism. As France’s President Emmanuel Macron has stated in his speech at the 79th United Nations General Assembly, the renewal of multilateralism implies that we must change the governance composition of our main institutions. This is the reason why France supports the bid by India and other G-4 nations for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. We need to make our international institutions more efficient, which also means making them more representative. Beyond that, we need to work on a common financial agenda and to thoroughly reform the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

As President Macron has pointed out: “These institutions were conceived, designed and calibrated at a time when the challenges were not the same, when the world economy was not the same size, when demographics had nothing to do with it. We need to give these institutions the capacity to act to finance the projects that the countries of the South need. This reform is imperative for our collective credibility.” As we need to build an agenda that allows us to tackle climate change, biodiversity preservation, global health issues, as well as reduce inequalities, France believes that La Francophonie can make an important contribution in this regard.

A focus on digital technology
The summit will also have a major focus on digital technology at a time when AI is proliferating in our societies. AI tools have raised new questions about the protection of creation and the promotion of diversity. Platforms must be able to enforce citizens’ rights in their own language, while AI can also become a tremendous asset for French and all other languages, by facilitating translation. As it is one of the civilizational challenges of our century, France will follow up on these deliberations by hosting the AI Action Summit in February 2025.

On the margins of this summit, the first FrancoTech Fair, a major event that will bring together more than 150 exhibitors from various nations to discuss pressing challenges of our times, will be held. Topics will include opportunities and challenges in developing AI; energy transition; education, and, more broadly, human capital development. For young Indian innovators with international ambitions, this event will offer opportunities with Francophone actors from around the globe.

Multilateralism, innovation, AI, cultural and linguistic diversity. I believe that all these La Francophonie topics are of shared interest and importance for France and India. The Paris AI Action Summit in 2025 as well as the India-France Year of Innovation that will be launched in 2026 will be important moments to push forward new collective solutions in these fields.

Thierry Mathou is the Ambassador of France to India

The opinion piece was published in The Hindu on 02nd October 2024.