UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, H E Nassir Abdulaziz Al Nasser (right), with a Kazakh official.
Astana: The UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, H E Nassir Abdulaziz Al Nasser, yesterday held talks here on the sidelines of the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022), which was launched here earlier Friday.
“International dialogue can act as a major source for building peace and attaining sustainable development. This idea lies at the heart of the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures, initiated by Kazakhstan and led by Unesco,” highlighted Nassir Abdulaziz Al Nasser.
The Unesco Director-General, Irina Bokova said: “The objective of the Decade is to promote mutual understanding and respect for diversity, rights and equal dignity between peoples, through intercultural dialogue and concrete initiatives.”
She said these tasks have never been as important as they are today — in a world changing quickly, where all societies are transforming and deeply fragile, where ‘differences’ are too often seen as ‘challenges.’
“The objective of the Decade is to promote mutual understanding and respect for diversity, rights and equal dignity between peoples, through intercultural dialogue and concrete initiatives,” she said.
Unesco Director-General, Irina Bokova, the Chairperson of the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Unesco and ISESCO, Imangali Tasmagambetov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Erlan Idrissov, officially launched the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures.
During his visit to the city of Astana, which comes at the official invitation of the Kazakh government, Nassir Abdulaziz Al Nasser met with Khairat Mami, the Chairman of the House of Representatives in the Kazakh Parliament, who invited Al Nasser to the ambassador to deliver a speech to parliament.
The top Qatari official held bilateral meetings with Kazakh Foreign Affairs Minister, Erlan Idrissov, Minister of Culture Mokhtar Mohammed, and the Governor of the city of Astana, Imangali Nurgaliyevich Tasmagambetov. QNA
