PARIS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The three-day annual French ambassadors' conference is scheduled to begin here on Monday during which President Nicolas Sarkozy and his foreign affairs minister Bernard Kouchner are expected to spell their international visions.
According to a French foreign ministry statement issued Thursday, about 180 French ambassadors will be received Monday by Sarkozy at the presidential palace, before beginning their deliberations under the chairmanship of Kouchner at the Paris international conference center.
Created in 1993, this year's French ambassadors' conference will be held under the themes of "how to act today?" "France's EU presidency" in the second half of 2008 and "modernization and management of the ministry."
"This conference will also provide an opportunity to the highest state authorities to spell their policies and give directives to our ambassadors," says the statement.
Portuguese and Slovenian ministers for foreign affairs, Luis Amado and Dimitrij Rupel, whose countries are respectively chairing the current EU presidency and that of the first half of 2008, are also expected to take part in debates on European issues.
The ambassadors will afterwards be invited to visit various French regions on Aug. 30 and 31, in order to "expound to the French on the government's activities abroad," says the ministry.
