Francophony Today, there are over 150 million French-speaking people on 5 continents - Europe, Asia, America and Oceania - among which 7 million in Quebec, Canada. French is one of the 6 official languages of the UN and one of its 2 working languages. The headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, is located in Paris.

Since 1986, there have been 7 Francophony summits, welcoming over 45 countries from all around the world. The summit of Heads of State and Government having the French language in common, held in Hanoi (Vietnam) in November 1987, endorsed the Francophone community's political scope with the appointment of a Secretary General, a political spokesman for the community and coordinator of its economic and linguistic cooperation programmes. This is the proof that France wants to do more than simply expand the use of the French language in the world; its ambition is to make the French-speaking community a true forum for cooperation that is not only linguistic and cultural but also economic and political .