On August 15, 1947, in the very first broadcast of Radio-Pakistan as the official radio of free and independent Pakistan, and immediately after the announcement of the assumption of office of Mohammed Ali Jinnah as Governor General, the first two messages received from abroad were read to greet the birth of the new country: one was from China, the other was from France; it was written personally by the then French president: Vincent Auriol.
Exactly eight months later, the Quaid e Azam received the first French Ambassador and lyrically hailed our national motto, “Liberté Egalité Fraternité” (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity). He also expressed the wish that relations between Pakistan and France would be warmer and more constructive so that the two countries could contribute together in a world undergoing reconstruction after the Second World War. And help transform a world already troubled by the beginnings of the cold war to a calmer and more prosperous world.
Relations between Pakistan and France are historical in nature and must be seen in a long-term context. Today contacts between the two countries are being revived on several levels, political, economic, and cultural, with strong dynamics in sectors such as agriculture and the renovation of the old town of Lahore. I salute the 75 years of Pakistan and, using the words inspired by its national anthem, wishes the country imagined by the Poet of the East Allama Iqbal and founded by Mohammed Ali Jinnah to continue its path towards progress, happiness and prosperity of its people and its State; Qaum, Mulk, Sultanat.