Armenia became an associate member of the International Organization of Francophony

On October 15-18 in Quebec 24th session of the Ministerial Council and 12th Summit of Heads of member countries and Heads of Governments of the International Organization of Francophone countries took place with participation of representatives of 70 countries, as well as United Nations Organization Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. Armenia was represented by Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

On October 18 the Summit of the Heads of countries of the International Organization of Francophone countries made a resolution to confer Armenia the status of an associate member of the Organization.
Armenia appealed for the status in the Organization in April 2008. On April 22 Foreign Minister Nalbandian met Secretary-General of the Organization Abdou Diouf and reiterated Armenia’s intention to further deepen its involvement in the activities of the Organization. This was followed by approvals of Armenia’s associate member status by the Francophone Permanent Council and a resolution of Ministerial Council of the Organization.

Participants of the Summit discussed the report of Secretary-General Abdou Diouf  on the activity of the Organization on the last two years after the previous Summit, as well as touched upon issues of international importance.
Armenian Foreign Minister made a speech during the Summit. He highly evaluated the cooperation and solidarity of the Francophone member-countries and stressed that Armenia is committed for the values of the Organization and will make efforts to actively contribute to the activity of the Organization of Francophone countries.

    During the Quebec Summit the chairmanship of the Organization was assumed by  Canada, following Romania’s  two-year term.
     Within the frameworks of the Summit Minister Nalbandian and Franck Biancheri, Minister for Foreign Relations of the Principality of Monaco signed a Protocol on establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
    In Quebec, Minister Nalbandian had a meeting with Lawrence Cannon, Minister of transport infrastructure and communities of Canada by the request of the latter. The two discussed a wide range of issues of Armenian-Canadian bilateral relations and specially focused on the perspectives of decentralized cooperation between the two countries. They also touched upon issues of widening the bilateral cooperation in the areas of high technologies, telecommunications, as well as economic and cultural relations.

In the course of the visit to Canada Minister Nalbandian also met representatives Armenian-Canadian community.