UAE praises Arab world's cultural identity at Riyadh conference

The UAE has hailed the efforts of Arab nations to forge a shared cultural identity, at a conference in Saudi Arabia.

Mubarak Al Nakhi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Youth, stressed the need for the region to come together to bolster dialogue, co-existence, peace and brotherhood.

He delivered his hopeful message at the 23rd session of the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers on Friday, in Riyadh.

During the opening ceremony, Mr Al Nakhi handed over the presidency of the conference to Prince Badr bin Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Culture and chairman of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science.

The previous summit was held the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, on the sidelines of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Mr Al Nakhi spoke of how Arab countries had already united on efforts to secure further regional representation in Unesco heritage lists and to develop creative industries.

“We developed a number of programmes during the last session and focused on several pressing issues,” said Mr Al Nakhi.

“The most prominent of which was to review and update the comprehensive plan for Arab culture, which the UAE was honoured to support.

“We firmly believe in the importance of enriching Arab culture and preserving the national and civilisational identity of our homeland.”

“The United Arab Emirates adopted a number of recommendations, such as emphasising the success of the efforts made during the Covid-19 pandemic, which contributed to the continuity of cultural work.

“We also implemented several cultural initiatives, fostering communication between Arab countries, and calling upon them to adopt a policy of digital transformation.

“There is a need to digitise cultural content in anticipation of any emergency. We are harnessing modern technology to serve the cultural movement and mobilise joint Arab cultural work in that direction.”

Mr Al Nakhi expressed his confidence that Saudi Arabia will help the region to reach its cultural goals in the year to come.

The conference is typically held every two years and was first hosted in Amman in 1976.

Arab world united in support of Morocco

The unity of the Arab world has been highlighted by the outpouring of support for Morocco during their history-making run to the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.

The Atlas Lions face Portugal on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals of the competition.

“We have a whole people behind us, a continent behind us and the Arab world behind us,” said Morocco manager Walid Regragui.

“That's a lot of energy behind us. We're going to try and do everything we can.”