| Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds seminar on role of culture in international relations |
| 11/22/2012 |
Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds seminar on role of culture in international relations
November 20, 2012
KABUL The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a seminar titled The Role of Culture in International Relations on Monday. The seminar was chaired by H.E. Jawed Ludin, Deputy Foreign Minister and attended by Deputy Ministers of Information and Culture, Higher Education, and a number of parliamentarians, cultural figures, scholars and university professors.
The seminar was inaugurated with a message from H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan read by Mr. Ludin. A part of the message said, Culture is a symbol of friendship, harmony and integration and a key to establishing and further developing relations, friendships and understanding among societies. Afghanistan being among the inheritors of the oldest civilizations and cultures shares cultural commonalities with most of the countries in the region. With this background, Afghanistan can make progress and succeed in the development and improvement of relations among societies.
With regard to the role of culture in international relations, Mr. Ludin said, modern international political diplomacy, with all its outstanding values and achievements, requires the soft and effective diplomacy of culture. Cultural diplomacy aims at introducing and identifying the culture of a society to the outside world, not attempting to impose it.
In international diplomacy when the common needs of the people and their cultural commonalities are identified in their positive sense and accurately analyzed and mutual understanding is created among the nations, tackling the global challenges become possible. The realization of this theme is made possible through dialogues among religions, cultures and civilizations. The only objective of todays seminar is to discuss cultural diplomacy as an essential element of a countrys foreign policy. In this context, coordination among the relevant authorities, such as the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Information and Culture and Higher Education is an essential requirement.
During the seminar talks were delivered on the role of culture in international relations. The seminar was considered as an important start on the values of cultural diplomacy and promoting the culture of tolerance in complementing diplomatic relations.
The seminar concluded in the afternoon with the issuance of a resolution on the importance of culture in international relations and its implications for the countrys foreign policy.
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