Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Mazaheri, president of ECO Cultural Institute met with Ambassador of Brunei in Iran on Monday, May 28th, 2018. At the meeting, which was held at the Brunei Embassy in Tehran, the two sides held talks on a range of issues, including ways to organize common cultural events.
Dr. Mazaheri congratulated the Ambassador of Brunei upon his new assignment as ASEAN president since July 2018, saying: "ECO Cultural Institute, within the framework of cultural diplomacy, seeks to expand ties with all countries." Alluding to Kampong Ayer in Brunei, as "Venice of East," he suggested organizing a photo exhibition on Brunei tourist attractions at ECI diplomatic gallery.
Referring to the issue of extremism that has involved both ASEAN member countries and the countries of the ECO region, he viewed holding symposiums among scholars and academicians in different fields including peace and fighting against extremism among other areas of cooperation.
Also, Dr. Mazaheri further invited ASEAN member countries to participate in short courses in different fields of Islamic arts in English held in collaboration with ECO Cultural Institute and Islamic School of Arts. Holding Brunei Kite Festival in Iran with the presence of diplomats from other countries with their families, as well as publication of ECO and ASEAN Tourism Guidebook were among other points discussed at the meeting.
Following his welcoming remarks to Dr. Mazaheri, ambassador of Brunei, Haji Metasan stated: "Given the upcoming anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN Union, we hope to celebrate the event successfully in cooperation with ECO Cultural Institute." Referring to Mexican Film Week which was held with great success in cooperation with ECO Cultural Institute, he also called for holding similar events for ASEAN member countries at ECI headquarters.
While welcoming the proposal made by the president of ECO Cultural Institute for organizing joint programs, ambassador of Brunei, referred to holding "ECO Sports Cup" for foreign diplomats as successful experience and called for organizing similar event as "ECO and ASEAN Sports Cup".