The La Giraudiere South West France Asian Holiday Travel Partners in Asia

Asia is the region of the world with the fewest French-speaking countries and where only 1.1 million people are currently learning French. The figure is deceptive, however, since it hides situations that differ greatly from country to country and does not reflect the recently rekindled interest in French in some of them. Visit the country's pages to see the latest situation regarding each country in Asia. The future of French influence - an ideal of equality, of solidarity and economic and social progress - will depend on France's capacity to strengthen cooperation with Asian élites. Three intellectuals discuss the French contribution in this area.
"We carry the burden of the world's heritage, but it will take the form that we give it". These words of the writer André Malraux, then French Minister of Cultural Affairs, are quoted from his opening address at the Niamey conference in February 1969, which was to set up the first international organization for the French speaking world, the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (l'Agence de cooperation culturelle et technique). The author of Man's Estate (la Condition humane) ends his masterly message with this flight of oratory: "We all expect universality of France, because, for two hundred years, she alone has laid claim to it".

At a time when a number of political analysts are preoccupied with the potentially disastrous consequences of another Clash of Civilizations on a world scale due to exacerbated cultural differences, it seems advisable to reaffirm the purpose of strengthening the French-speaking community, whose values are equality, dignity, understanding and solidarity, and that Abdelkebir Khatibi, a Moroccan writer, described, at the States General of francophone writers in Paris, in 1989, as "plural universality", adding: "What of the French-speaking world in terms of an axis of civilization and international strategy?"

Asian countries like Thailand are attempting to respond to such questions by recommending a new educational approach. In this respect, the Thai Educational Reform Commission was to recall, in 1996, that "the movement towards globalisation is associated with the notion of a "world citizen", which implies new forms of education The men and women of the future should be prepared for multicultural interaction, for changing values, for a cosmopolitan way of life, while still being able to fight to preserve their own ideals and identity".

These preoccupations are central to the work of the French-speaking World Summit in Hanoi, which has decided to focus on ways of "making the most of human resources, those involved in, and the beneficiaries of, development", by relying on "stronger cooperation and solidarity of the French-speaking World for peace and economic and social development". The long tradition of France's presence and the French language in Asia, but often too, the interest of Asians in the "country of culture and the art of living", will give an impetus to the development of partnerships based on interdependence and solidarity within the French-speaking community, a grouping which should be a source of hope in matters of sharing knowledge and mutual humanitarian assistance (see interview).