Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Van Quang, the Vietnamese President’s envoy to the Francophone Organisation (OIF) in France, has highlighted the country’s contributions to the development of the French-speaking Community, on the occasion of the 14th Francophone Summit in mid-October.

Vietnam was one of the founders of the French-speaking community in 1970 as it signed a treaty to establish the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT) in Niger.

Since then, Vietnam has participated in all activities of the Francophone community, particularly the summits, the Ambassador said.

He highlighted the 7th Summit in 1997 hosted by Vietnam, which marked a milestone in terms of institutional building of the Francophone. At the summit, the organisation elevated the 1970 treaty to the charter of the Francophone community and established the Francophone Organisation with the election of its first Secretary General.

According to the diplomat, the Hanoi Summit also expanded francophone activities to the economic field, which created a foundation for forming the tripartite cooperation model between French-speaking countries.

Vietnam is one of countries actively and effective participating in this cooperation model, the Ambassador said, citing the example of the effective tripartite cooperation among the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Vietnam and Senegal in agriculture.

Most recently, together with African countries, Vietnam has actively involved in compiling a document called “Francophone elements in the process of implementing tripartite cooperation”, which will be adopted at the 14th Summit.

The 14th Francophone meeting will take place from October 10-14 in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Summit, on October 13-14. Heads of States and Governments to the Summit are expected to adopt a Kinshasa Declaration.-VNA