Culture is the soul of a country or a nation. The traditional culture of ancient civilizations represents their profound pursuits and demonstrates their unique spiritual hallmarks.
Recently, the third Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum was held in Beijing. The meeting gathered representatives of member states including Armenia, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy and Peru, as well as non-member states-India, Mexico and Tajikistan. They shared experiences of safeguarding and developing fine traditional culture, enabling the ancient civilizations to shine ever more brightly in the new era.
The exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations have registered an important impetus in enhancing mutual understanding, promoting peaceful development of the world and push forward human civilization. The Ancient Civilizations Forum was originally initiated by both China and Greece to play an active role in promoting mutual understanding and inclusiveness among different cultures, races and religions through dialogues and exchanges.
The inaugural ministerial meeting of the forum took place in Athens in April, 2017, and the third edition is held this year in Beijing. From Declaration of Athens, Declaration of Tiwanaku to Declaration of Beijing, the member nations make it clear that they are determined to activate ancient civilizations in the new era, enhance cultural exchanges and cooperation, join hands to safeguard cultural diversity and promote world peace and development.
At the meeting, Luo Shugang noted that the forum has the confident voice of ancient countries heard within the international community, and has orchestrated a new chapter for dialogue among different civilizations as its international influence has been strengthened since its inauguration in 2017. At the same time, it’s aim conforms to President Xi Jinping’s remarks-we should respect the diversity of civilizations and let us replace estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence when handling relations among civilizations. Nowadays, it is a trend to build a community with a shared future for mankind. While cultural exchanges and cooperation will play an unique role.
“Nowadays, the human development should not blindly focus on material development and economic growth. As countries with rich cultural deposits, we are expected to demonstrate the fact that cultural development is the bedrock of human development.” said Peruvian Foreign Minister Gustavo Meza-Cuadra. He believed that we play an unique role as ancient civilizations in boosting the development of human creativity, inclusiveness and cultural diversity. Against the backdrop of complex international situation, culture and ancestor’s wisdom are highly in demand to address current problems and forge a better global system of governance.
“It is of great importance to protect cultural heritage, promote the development of humanist ideal, safeguard peace and respect cultural diversity, which demands joint contribution of all parties.” said Narine Khachaturyan, Armenian vice-minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, adding that it is paramount for Armenia to be involved in the Ancient Civilizations Forum in that the forum will further facilitate Armenia in protecting its history and cultural heritages.
Meanwhile, the platform featuring inclusiveness and respect will help explore how to prevent the deliberate distortion of cultural values, and to protect and safeguard cultural heritages.
Ahmed Berwari, Iraqi Ambassador to China, believed that the forum attaches much importance to the principle of mutual respect. Within the framework of the forum, countries will better protect and safeguard their own cultural heritages based on fairness, mutual benefit and equality when encouraging and promoting cultural diversity and enhancing cooperation with each other.
Culture has represented the spiritual veins of a country or a nation.For a civilization to endure, efforts must be made to keep it alive and build on its heritage from one generation to the next. More importantly, a civilization needs to adapt itself to the changing times and break new ground. The attending guests of the Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum gathered in Beijing with this mission.
In the future, member states will pursue all-dimensional, multi-tiered and comprehensive cultural exchanges. By virtue of such events as cultural year, tourism year and year of culture and tourism, people of various countries will understand and fall in love with other cultures.
“Italy, with rich culture and strong creativity, has been improving its cultural connotations, seeing that the culture plays an increasingly important role in tackling relations with foreign countries to implement the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.” said Giuseppe Fedele, Chargé d'Affaires of the Italian Embassy to China. Italy and China will jointly host the year of culture and tourism in 2020, which will help boost exchanges, benefit two sides and add new lustre to the ancient civilizations. “Bilateral cultural cooperation is powerful with hundreds of projects. In the earlier this year, we returned 94 pieces of cultural relics to China, which are on display in China National Museum now. Moreover, we will give full play to the role of cultural heritage in promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding. and to bridge peoples and nations in order to forge world peace and sustainable development.” he added.
Khaled El-Enany, Egyptian minister of Antiquities, believed that it is necessary to take action now in order to deal with challenges in protecting cultural heritages. He concluded with three proposals: firstly, it is to form a panel of experts from various fields including culture, tourism and cultural relics, who will offer effective technical assists; secondly, it is to further coordinate among different positions and initiatives, especially through different delegations, to cope with challenges; thirdly, it is to organize an annual international conference for combating illegal smuggling of cultural relics.
Ali Asghar Moonesan, Iranian minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, pointed out that cultural heritage has served as an important tool to promote regional and national peace amid a world with challenges and difficulties. He suggested building an exhibition center to showcase civilizations and cultures of all countries, including archaeology, music, architecture, crafts, traditional arts and tourism sector. Meanwhile, it is also hoped to offer peoples and countries opportunity to cooperate with each other by virtue of exhibition conferences.