On September 14, Yin Yong, Mayor of Beijing, met with Nevine Al-Kilani, Egyptian Minister of Culture, who came to Beijing to attend the 2023 Beijing Culture Forum.
According to Yin, President Xi Jinping met with President Sisi in December last year and both agreed to work together to build a China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era and further promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. The Chinese and Egyptian civilizations are both vital parts of world civilizations, playing crucial roles in safeguarding civilizational diversity, promoting exchanges and mutual learning, and facilitating innovative development. With a recorded history of more than 3,000 years, Beijing has been the capital for 870 years and has a rich historical and cultural heritage. In recent years, based on its strategic position, Beijing has fully implemented the new master plan and continued to pursue high-quality growth with reduced input. With the relentless efforts of becoming a national cultural center, the city attaches more importance to preserving, inheriting, and reviving the historical and cultural heritage, aiming to foster the culture of ancient capital, Beijing culture, innovation culture and better preserve the revolutionary heritage of Beijing. Beijing will implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and expand exchanges and cooperation with the sister city Cairo, making subnational exchanges a catalyst for the relations between the two countries. The two cities will learn from each other's practices and experience in the protection and inheritance of historical and cultural heritage and urban renewal, expand people-to-people exchanges, and carry out various forms of interaction, so as to further promote exchanges and mutual learning between the Chinese and Egyptian civilizations.
Kilani hailed the Beijing Culture Forum as a wonderful cultural event, noting the long history and fruitful results of cultural exchanges between Egypt and China. Egypt regards it essential to protect historical and cultural heritage and develop cultural industries. It is willing to have more dialogues and exchanges with China, deepen cooperation in preserving, inheriting, and reviving historical and cultural heritage, and further strengthen the friendship between the two peoples.
Assem Hanafi, Ambassador of Egypt to China; and Mo Gaoyi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Beijing Municipal Committee and director general of the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, attended the meeting.
(Written by Yang Qi)
