Press Conference of the 1st Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum
MFA SPOKESMAN: We welcome you to the
press conference of the 1st Ministerial Meeting of the Ancient
Civilizations Forum. The Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic,
Nikos Kotzias, has the floor.
N. KOTZIAS: Good afternoon.
I
would like to thank all of our guests, who came to Athens, the city of
Democracy and Culture, so that we could discuss issues concerning
ancient civilization and how we can use its wisdom to produce creative
plans for our peoples and the world. To discuss, among other things, how
we can use culture for peace, and cultural diplomacy for mutual
understanding.
We agreed to publish the speeches we made today in
a book in all of the languages. We also discussed the
institutionalization of this meeting and its being held on an annual
basis. Already, three member states of the Forum have expressed their
willingness to host the next meetings.
We also agreed that it
will be a Forum open to new members; a Forum that can be attended by
observers, such as states that do not have ancient cultures. We also
agreed that, as of the next meeting, we will also invite international
organizations, such as the UN and UNESCO, and, depending on the given
agenda for the meeting, we will also invite other specialized
international organizations.
We will create a network of
competent parties in each country, and we agreed that, at the next
meeting, together with the political conference, we will also hold an
academic conference, including a joint session between the ministers and
academics, which will provide fertile ground for the exchange of views
and ideas.
We agreed that ideal culture is good culture, peaceful
culture, democratic culture. It is what links the past and the future,
which imparts strength even to the weak, substantially upgrades
relations between states and gives us, the stewards of ancient
civilizations, a special responsibility, highlighting that we prefer the
civilized to the barbaric.
We prefer dialogue to fanaticism,
civilizing to acts of terror. We prefer to draw the wisdom of our
peoples from the past and use it to shape the future.
Today, ten
states, on various levels of representation, met in a historic
conference, the Ancient Civilizations Forum, which is a joint initiative
we took with my Chinese friend, Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Together with
other states, we had the pleasure of meeting here in Athens.
For
us, culture is a soft power and economic factor, and at the same time
it is a civilizing force that cultivates the human being, enabling us to
express the inexpressible in a way that banishes fears and insecurity.
We
concluded that we can and must continue our cooperation on
disseminating the values of a peaceful culture, and that we will be able
to shape a number of joint plans and projects that we will agree on
over the next two months.
Culture links many manifestations of
human activity through education, tourism, deterring wars, through new
technology and the way we use it.
As the Greek state, we want to
promote a positive agenda in our external relations. As we did yesterday
and today, pointing up the richness of our culture and its usefulness
in international relations. In this context, less that a month from now,
we will have the next Rhodes meeting on stability and security, which
is aimed at creating positive synergies in the Eastern Mediterranean,
between European and Arab states. All in all, we have put together 12
new international initiatives that are working in this direction.
I
want to say that I am both moved and satisfied, because a goal I have
been putting forth in my books for decades is being realised. A goal we
set together with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras: to bring together this
forum.
Thanks to everyone's help, and particularly that of the
Chinese side, two parallel great civilizations - and with the consent,
from the outset, of Egypt and Italy - with the heartfelt consensus of
our friends from Latin America, and with the splendour of Arab culture
and the civilizations that developed in the Arab world. Everyone,
without exception, gladly accepted our proposal a year and a half or two
years ago; a proposal that today is crystallizing and will evolve
through a number of practical measures.
I thank you for your
patience. I thank our colleagues who will now take the floor to tell us
how they feel and how they see this initiative.
I thank everyone.
MFA SPOKESMAN: The Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Wang Yi, please take the floor.
Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi: China supports Greece in this very important
initiative for the creation of an Ancient Civilizations Forum.
Moreover,
as the Greek Foreign Minister said, China has agreed to be and has
acted as a kind of co-organizer of this forum, as we believe it is a
useful initiative within an international environment of destabilising
factors.
The key words of these meetings are:
First, peace. The ten countries
participating in this forum are countries with ancient civilizations,
and over the past millennia we have seen the rise and fall of dynasties
and empires, we have seen wars, poverty, turmoil in many parts of the
world.
Consequently, we, as ancient civilizations, are very well
aware of the importance of peace, and we value peace very highly. From
our ancient civilizations we have learned that we have a common
responsibility to defend peace. Any international conflicts must be
resolved by peaceful means, and this world must no longer have wars or
conflicts.
The second key word is tolerance for others. All of
our civilizations have special characteristics. The variety and
diversity of cultures has contributed to their progress. Two thousand
years ago, the Chinese said that peace requires a responsible way of
dealing with relations. There is no domination among cultures. There is
no culture that is higher than others. We are all at the same level, on
equal terms. Tolerance and learning from one another is the way to seek
progress.
The third key word is cooperation. All ten
civilizations have a very proud history. We all need to open up more. We
are facing the challenge of achieving progress and improving the
quality of life of our peoples. This is why we need to cooperate, so
that we can have profitable results for everyone, and we must work
together for the collective development and common prosperity of all.
And I believe that, in this way, our ten ancient civilizations can
contribute to everyone's future.
The last thing I want to say is
in reference to the Foreign Minister of Greece, Mr. Kotzias, who worked
very hard to create this forum. He dedicated so much to the organization
and development of this forum, creating a platform for the interaction
of these ancient civilizations. We are all very moved by his dedication,
because it is thanks to his efforts that we now see the creation of
this forum, and we are very pleased to see the support of the Prime
Minister and other organizations. And this active support made feasible
this very good start for the Ancient Civilizations Forum.
I also
welcome the contribution of friends who are here or are absent, and on
behalf of the Chinese side I express our gratitude to all of you. I
truly believe that this forum will steadily grow in strength and be
fully recognized by the international community. Thank you very much.
MFA SPOKESMAN: Will the Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mr. Sameh Shoukry, please take the floor.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry: Thank you very much. First of all, I
would like to express my warm thanks and our gratitude to the Foreign
Ministers of the Hellenic Republic and the People's Republic of China.
It
was an honour for us to be here and talk and exchange views at this
forum, which in reality revives the history of civilization, revives the
values and human principles that must be a source of inspiration and
guide to the future.
Pharaonic Egypt, Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic
Egypt, the Egypt of today are in reality an extension of the past
towards the future, which is based on peaceful coexistence and
confronting destructive thoughts, confronting armed conflicts. I believe
that, based on peaceful coexistence, we can establish communication
among peoples, so that there can be progress.
This is why we look
forward to an effective contribution, and we hope that these efforts
bear fruit that will contribute to the benefit not just of this group,
but of all humanity.
I express my warm thanks,
MFA SPOKESMAN: The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, has the floor.
Iranian
Foreign Minister Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif: Good afternoon. Ladies and
gentlemen, it is great pleasure and honour for me to be here with
representatives of the ten ancient civilizations addressing the
international media.
I wanted to thank the Government and people
of Greece for the gracious hospitality and I want to thank my dear
friends, the Foreign Ministers of Greece and China for initiating this
welcome initiative at this important juncture, when the international
community needs more than ever the contribution of wisdom that comes
from older civilizations on the face of the earth.
I believe what we need to do together is to promote the ideas that have kept these civilizations alive.
It
has not been the wars – if we remember these civilizations we don’t
remember them by their military victories, but we remember them by their
contribution to knowledge, the contribution to understanding, the
contribution to human empathy that these civilizations stood for.
So
at this time when the world is suffering from extremism of all kinds,
extremism that is reflected in the approaches of many state and
non-state actors at the global level, we need the lessons that we can
draw from old civilizations, civilizations that have seen the rise and
demise of many empires, know that time is a victory and we are but short
moments in the history of mankind.
We can contribute by
promoting dialogue, understanding, human empathy and moderation within
the international community. And I thank the government of Greece for
this initiative to allow us to make this contribution at this time, and I
believe this idea and this forum has a lot to offer to the
international community, and we hope that in the future we can continue
to work together in order to promote understanding, dialogue, and
moderation.
Thank you very much.
MFA SPOKESMAN: Will the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Iraq, Dr. Ibrahim Al Jaafari, please take the floor.
Iraqi
Foreign Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al Jaafari: In the name of the God of
mercy, I would like to welcome the convening of the 1st Conference of
Ancient Civilizations. This Conference is seen as being of particular
importance and, of course, the first step is always key, though the road
be very long.
Thus, we now have the potential to give life to
this forum and start from zero. We are at the first meeting, and I hope
that there will be many more.
We hope this meeting will be
annual, and we are prepared to host the next meeting in the land of
Mesopotamia, in the land of Iraq, with a civilization that is 7,000
years old. Of course we are pleased to be here with you, with our sister
country Egypt, where civilization began.
We hope there will be
ongoing communication that reflects the principles of civilization, as
the mindset of discrimination, of exclusion, has cost the world dearly.
And let us not forget that there is the culture of wars. The First and
Second Wars, for example. A mindset based on conflict and racism, which
transformed into intolerance. And then intolerance transformed into war,
leaving 5.5 million victims in the world.
So we must cultivate a culture of love, of trust, of understanding. We must promote the culture of harmony and convergence.
Many
intellectuals in the modern era thought we would have a clash of
civilizations, but, on the contrary, we are promoting the culture of
convergence of civilizations. We are promoting harmony, reaffirming that
we encourage cultural diversity, which we convert into emotional
wealth, so that we can confront the world's many ills.
This
meeting also falls within the framework of joint cooperation centred on
the dialogue of cultures. Dialogue is one of the key points of this
effort, and it is of timeless value.
The enemies of
civilizations, like the DAESH terrorist organization in the Islamic
world, target the human being, women, children, anything that symbolizes
humanity, coexistence, love. They have crossed every line and have
targeted the very monuments of civilization, destroying them.
We
support this dialogue of cultures through our firm stance. Today, this
forum is a step in the right direction, but we hope that this effort
will continue and become established. This means that the culture of
love will now become a reality that will contribute to confronting the
intolerance promoted by DAESH, which aims at destruction, while we
propose the dialogue of cultures.
I want to thank the Foreign
Minister of Greece. I want to thank the Foreign Minister of the People's
Republic of China. It is no coincidence that they belong to two of the
most ancient civilizations, and that democracy was born here in Athens.
Unfortunately,
however, the pioneer of democracy, Socrates, was put to death by a
democratic decision, and this distorted the notion of democracy, with
the result that he was forced to drink hemlock.
Thank you very much, and may the peace of God be with you.
Peruvian
Foreign Minister Salvador del Solar: Good afternoon. I convey the
gratitude of the government of Peru to the Greek government for hosting
this event, as well as our gratitude to the government of China for
supporting it.
I think we are moving in the right direction, even
though we are now moving towards an uncertain future. I think it is
very, very important for us to be able to come together at a forum on
ancient civilizations. We believe in dialogue and tolerance as means for
dealing with ignorance.
We support culture and we are convinced that this forum of ancient civilizations will create an excellent future for our past.
Thank you very much.
MFA SPOKESMAN: On behalf of Bolivia, Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Guadalupe Palomeque.
Bolivian
Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Guadalupe Palomeque: Thank you very much.
Good afternoon to everyone. It was a great honour for Bolivia to be able
to participate in this first Ancient Civilization Forum. I would like
to thank, in particular, the government of the Hellenic Republic, as
well as the government of China, the co-organizer of this important
event.
I would also like to say that my country represents the
Tiwanaku civilization, which developed around Lake Titicaca and La Paz,
in Bolivia. In Bolivia, we are in favour of peace and dialogue, and,
through people's diplomacy, we promote multiculturalism and, above all,
harmonious coexistence. This is our philosophy.
Bolivia will host
the next meeting of the Ancient Civilizations Forum, in 2018, and we
are certain that we will be able to provide the necessary continuity for
this excellent initiative of the Greek government.
Thank you very much.