On December 16^th, the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient Civilization Forum was held as a video conference. In the meeting introduced the result of the 2021 expert meeting of the forum and discussed issues relating to cultural heritage protection, cracking down on illegal transportation of cultural heritage. The meeting was hosted by the Peruvian foreign minister. Those attended and delivered speeches included representatives from other member states included Armenia, Bolivia, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy and Mexico.

    Li Qun, vice culture and tourism minister and director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, stressed that China had been exploring the origin and the early development of the Chinese civilization; improving the effort spent on the protection of cultural heritage; enhancing the innovative transformation and development of cultural heritage; pushing forward the tracing of looted relics; improving international cooperation and promoting the ancient civilization. Li Qun said that we need to give full play to the influence of an ancient civilization and make full use of the Ancient Civilization Forum as a platform. China can learn the beneficial part from civilizations from other countries, be a leading figure of the communication between civilizations and let cultural heritage be a bridge to enable people from different countries and civilizations to coexist in a harmonious way. He brought up three suggestions. First, we needed to protect cultural heritage to cope with global challenges. Second, we needed to be global civilization partners to help people to connect with each other. Third, we needed to stick to innovation and opening-up to improve the influence of the Ancient Civilization Forum.

    All representatives in the meeting agreed that cultural heritage is an important carrier for the heritage of history and culture of every ethnic group as well as are significant for the economic and social development of the world in the current era and to promote the co-existence of every nationality. All parties agreed that it’s necessary to give full play to the forum, to enhance international exchanges, to improve multilateral cooperation mechanism, to protect the diversity of cultural heritage and world culture and to promote the heritage and progress of civilizations, so as to inject vitality into ancient civilizations and to offer beneficial advice to solve problems in the current era. It’s decided by the meeting that the Iraq will be the host country of the 2022 Ancient Civilization Forum.