Louise Mushikiwabo Receives Armenia’s Order of Honour Amid COP17 Diplomacy in Yerevan
Louise Mushikiwabo, Secretary-General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, arrived in Yerevan this week for the high-level Leaders’ Summit on Biodiversity, held as the political opening to the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
On the margins of the summit, Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan received her at the presidential residence and conferred the Order of Honour in recognition of her sustained efforts to strengthen relations between Armenia and the Organisation and her commitment to humanitarian values.
The decoration marked a personal acknowledgment of Mushikiwabo’s role in deepening institutional ties that have grown steadily since Armenia became a full member of the Francophonie and hosted its 2018 summit.
During the meeting, the two leaders reviewed the close and productive cooperation between Armenia and the Organisation. Discussions highlighted Armenia’s rising international profile, demonstrated by its dual role as host of both the biodiversity conference and the 10th Jeux de la Francophonie, scheduled for Yerevan from 23 July to 1 August 2027.
The Games will bring young athletes and artists from across the Francophone world together for combined sporting and cultural competitions, offering a further platform to showcase the country’s heritage. Mushikiwabo also met separately with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Their conversation addressed the state of preparations for the 2027 Games, opportunities to expand collaboration in education, culture, and French-language teaching, and the broader importance of lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus.
These bilateral exchanges took place against the backdrop of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, which runs from 19 to 30 October in Yerevan under the theme “Taking Action for Nature.” The gathering constitutes the first global review of progress toward the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022. With only four years remaining until the 2030 deadline, negotiators are expected to focus on accelerating implementation, mobilizing resources, and strengthening coordination across climate, land, and biodiversity agendas. Armenia’s presidency of the conference until 2028 places the country at the center of efforts to convert political commitments into concrete results.
The host nation itself illustrates the stakes. Covering just 6.7 percent of the Caucasus region, Armenia supports approximately 60 percent of its biodiversity, including mountain forests, steppes, wetlands, and alpine meadows. The official emblem of the conference is the Yerevan Blue Butterfly, an endemic species found only in and around the capital and listed in Armenia’s Red Book. Its presence in the urban landscape underscores that global biodiversity goals depend on local conservation. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie is supporting the process through its Institute for Sustainable Development, offering capacity-building workshops for francophone delegates, facilitating access to materials in French, and promoting partnerships that help countries advance their national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
Preparations in Yerevan have included temporary school closures, remote-work arrangements for government offices, and traffic measures to accommodate an expected 15,000 participants. The Leaders’ Summit on 16 October, attended by heads of state, senior officials of international organizations, scientists, and representatives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, provided an early political signal of renewed commitment. Mushikiwabo’s presence and the honor bestowed upon her by the Armenian president illustrate how cultural and diplomatic networks can reinforce the environmental agenda, linking longstanding institutional partnerships to the urgent task of reversing biodiversity loss.
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