Ambassador defends summit

Hanoi - France's ambassador to Hanoi yesterday presented the 49-nation Francophone summit as a champion of both solidarity and diversity, and said Vietnam was a fitting venue for its next summit in November. Mr Serge Degallaix denied it was an organisation in search of a raison d'etre. The Francophone summit, which will hold its seventh summit in the Vietnamese capital from November 14th to 16th, is a loose association grouping some 450 million people.