Azerbaijani Culture Minister meets with ICESCO Director-General

Minister of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan Anar Karimov took part in the 2021 G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna, Italy, and met with ICESCO Director-General Salim bin Mohammed Al-Malik.

Report informs that the meeting focused on Azerbaijan-ICESCO relations, the visit of the Director-General to Azerbaijan in January 2021, and the exchange of views on the issues discussed.

Anar Karimov noted that the visit of Al-Malik caused a great resonance in the Azerbaijani society, and ICESCO's support to our country during the 44-day war and in the post-war period was highly appreciated.

At the same time, discussions were held on taking concrete steps to implement the agreed points during the visit.

Salim Al-Malik, in turn, thanked for the invitation to pay a high-level official visit to Azerbaijan and received by President Ilham Aliyev, noting that ICESCO has already begun work on the implementation of agreements reached during the meetings.

The most important issues include the announcement of Shusha as the Capital of Islamic Culture, the completion of the opening of ICESCO's regional office in Azerbaijan, as well as the celebration of the 880th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi at ICESCO.

Thus, a general agreement was reached to organize a major international event dedicated to the legacy of Nizami Ganjavi at the ICESCO Secretariat by the end of this year and to discuss issues related to the regional office at the working group level after clarifying the points proposed by Azerbaijan.

The sides agreed to make presentations on these issues at the ICESCO General Conference and the Conference of Ministers of Culture by the end of this year.

The Director-General also expressed his support for the new initiative of the Azerbaijani side, the global campaign Peace4Culture, and agreed to hold a comprehensive presentation of the campaign within the ICESCO General Conference in December 2021.