The Main Results of the Francophone Week in Yerevan

• 10.17.2018, 16:15
•  World,  Armenia

The Francophonie Summit held last week in Yerevan was, of course, a historic event for Armenia. Within a week, Armenia was in the spotlight of the whole world, including a number of African countries which relations with Armenia used to be very limited.

If we sum up the main results of the summit, first of all, we should mention the increase of Armenia's popularity as a country. This is important both from the point of view of the country's reputation in the international arena and from the tourist flow growth.

In addition, the summit and parallel events allowed Armenia to present its achievements in various fields, in particular in the field of technology, search for investments and opportunities for partnership development.

In fact, Armenia has acted as the main organizer of events in the Francophonie world. Taking into account the humanitarian nature of the International Organization of the Francophonie and Armenia's being an associate member of it, this is really a great achievement. And to achieve this success, a consistent work has been carried out for many years.

In addition to a number of issues related to the French language and cooperation in different fields, the structure also addresses the military-political issues of member states, including regional conflicts. In this context the formulation regarding the Artsakh conflict on the Summit Summary documents is remarkable which states: "We reiterate our full support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and we are repeating that lasting peace requires full involvement of all parties to the conflict on the basis of the Co-Chairs' proposals." It should be noted that this formulation differs from the formulation of the previous resolution, which contained the second part of the paragraph, involving all parties concerned.

In addition, the member states called on to ease tensions and to fully respect the ceasefire regime, to avoid militaristic rhetoric, to create a constructive environment and to implement the existing arrangements. They also urged the continuation of the negotiation process, based on the Helsinki principles, including non-use of force and threats, territorial integrity and equality of peoples and the right to self-determination.

Thus, Armenia has done a great deal of work over the past few years to properly hold this important event for the Francophone world, in parallel increasing the positive attitude towards our country and expanding our partnership with the Francophone countries. It creates both economic and political opportunities. And the already launched process can be continued more effectively over the next two years, given the Armenian presidency in the International Organization of La Francophonie.