Mr. Speaker, today, March 20, is the Journée internationale de la Francophonie. The Francophonie includes 134 million French speaking people living in 49 countries, on all five continents.
French has been celebrated for 20 years. It all began when the ministers and chiefs of French speaking delegations attending an extraordinary session of the General Conference of the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, in Paris, proclaimed March 20 the Journée mondiale de la Francophonie.
The Francophonie is, to use a line coined by Léopold Senghor, "this integral humanism which is being knit around the world; this symbiosis of dormant energies from all continents, all races, waking up to the new warmth".
The Francophonie is a human force which lives and flourishes on every continent. Let us pursue our efforts to make the Francophonie a haven for peace and solidarity.