About 200 experts from the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries discussed language in international relations at the 89th World Esperanto Congress Sunday.

The experts held that it was essential to further popularize Esperanto in order to protect human rights, language democracy and cultural diversification and safeguard world peace.

On the Nitobe Symposium opened here Sunday afternoon, President of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA) Renato Corsetti said the relationship between culture and language reflects the political and economic relations between countries and nations.

Humphrey Tonkin, professor with the University of Hartford, noted that that although English is widely used and learned by many countries, Esperanto is an international language with different advantages. He suggested using Esperanto in the agreements of international organizations, and teaching Esperanto in schools.

Su Jinzhi, professor with the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the State Language Work Committee, said there are two ways to solve language inequality: one is to seek or create universal language; the other is to maintain language diversification and create language equality.

As the world seeks a universal language for diplomacy and business, he acknowledged that to choose Esperanto, which is created by peace-loving people and is easy to learn, is conducive to maintaining language diversification.

Vice President of the UEA Lee Chong-Yeong said that using Esperanto can help protect human rights and protect the language rights of disadvantaged nations.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2004)