05 January 2016
H.E Shaikha Mai Receives Newly-Appointed Egyptian Ambassador
H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammad Al-Khalifa, president of Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities (BACA), has received on 5 Januarys 2016, the newly appointed Egyptian ambassador to Bahrain Suha Rifaat. H.E the Minister of Culture also wished the new envoy every success in performing his diplomatic duties and bolstering bilateral ties while stressing the need to booster bilateral cultural relations between the two countries. Enhancing culture relations and achieving 2016 cultural goals, being held under the theme (Bahrain Your destination), were also discussed.
H.E Shaikha Mai commended the solid brotherly relations and cultural cooperation between the two countries. She said that Bahrain seeks to enrich its cultural activities by communicating with other Arab countries, chiefly Egypt for its gorgeous culture and civilization. During the meeting, the Culture Minister praised the development of the relations between Bahrain and Egypt, stressing the Kingdom’s keenness to develop cultural bilateral relations between them in line with the nature of such relations, which received direct support from the leaders of the two countries. The recent developments in the Arab region and their impact on cultural and intellectual scenes were also discussed during this meeting.
The Egyptian ambassador expressed appreciation of Shaikha Mai’s efforts in reinforcing cultural and humanitarian relations, stressing keenness to cooperate with the BACA to achieve the cultural goals in the interest of both people. Egyptian Ambassador H.E Suha Rifaat said that both countries have a rich cultural heritage and immense intellectual ambitions, which could be a starting point for a new challenging interactive relationship. Mutual cooperation in all fields and the need to initiate big cultural projects were also dealt with during this meeting.
It is worth mentioning that the Cairo International Book Fair is in its 47th session and the Kingdom of Bahrain will be the guest of honor of this year's exhibition, following inviting Egypt as a guest of honor as Bahrain hosted the 2014 International Book Fair.
The book fair will be held from January 27, 2016 until February 10 and will include various cultural and artistic activities.
The Cairo International Book Fair, which started in 1969, is one of the biggest book fairs in the world with hundreds of book sellers and about two million visitors every year. It is the largest book fair in the Arab World and is held in January each year in Cairo and in 2006 it was the second largest book fair in the world after the Frankfurt Book Fair.
