2010 to be announced the year of cultural links

Astana, 24 June 2008, Khabar - The official spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry Yerzhan Ashikbayev has said at a briefing that Islamic states which attended the 5th meeting of foreign ministries’ of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference have backed the Kazakh President’s initiative to announce the year 2010 as the year of cultural links.

He added that the meeting also decided to back
Kazakhstan as the potential president of this Organisation in 2011. Muslim countries
were highly appreciative of Kazakhstan’s efforts in promoting an inter-civilisation
and an inter-faith dialogue and commended the Kazakh authorities’ decision to
convene a forum of western Muslim countries’ foreign ministries in October 2008 in Astana.

The briefing also said that the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will
pay a formal visit on the 24th of June to table a broad circle of issues on
political and economic cooperation. The Prime Minister of Luxembourg
Jean-Claude Juncker is to arrive in Kazakhstan on the 26th of June. (Khabar Agency)