DUSHANBE, March 25, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tajik Minister of Culture Mirzoshorukh Asrori has joined his counterparts from member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the 7th meeting of the culture ministers of the SCO member states that is opening in Beijing, China today.
According to the Tajik Ministry of Culture (MoC), the session that runs till March 30 is considering issues related to the progress of implementation of an agreement between the governments of the SCO member nations on cultural cooperation.
The session participants are also discussing prospects of further expansion of bilateral and multilateral cultural ties within the Organization.
The SCO culture ministers will also consider China’s initiative on holding the first SCO forum on culture industry in the city of Sanya, China in the second half-year of 2010, the source said.
The sixth meeting of the SCO culture ministers, dubbed National Cultural Traditions and Young People, was hosted by Kazan, Russia’s Tatarstan Republic on April 26-28, 2009.
We will recall that culture ministers of the six member states of the SCO (China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) met for the first time in Beijing in April 2002 and signed a joint declaration to boost cultural exchanges and cooperation. The joint declaration said that the six SCO member countries jointly advocated that the diversification and uniqueness in the cultures of different countries and peoples should enjoy full respect in the process of globalization. All forms of civilization should co-exist peacefully and learn from each other under equal conditions to achieve co-development. All parties agreed that cultural exchanges and cooperation were of great significance to consolidate bilateral and multilateral relations.
