Tunisia agrees to enhance cooperation in art & literature

Islamabad: Pakistan and Tunisia Monday agreed to boost mutual ties through enhancing cooperation in the fields of literature, art, culture and archaeology.

This was agreed in a meeting attended by Adviser to the Prime Minister on National History and Literary Heritage (NH&LH) Irfan Siddiqui and Tunisian Ambassador in Pakistan Adel Elarbi here at the NH&LH Division.

Irfan Siddiqui on the occasion acknowledged the interest shown by the Tunisian ambassador for initiating joint ventures in the fields of literature, arts and culture.

He said cooperation between Pakistan and Tunisia on literary and cultural fronts will foster the friendly relations between the two countries. "A Tunisian stall at the annual National Book Fair of National Book Foundation (NBF) to be held in early April this year, he said, would be welcomed.

The display of Tunisian literature in the book fair would set a positive trend and help understand each other’s culture, he added. Acknowledging the efforts of Tunisian ambassador for establishing ‘Ibn-i-Khaldun Corner’ at NBF, Siddiqui said, Pakistan and Tunisia are enjoying good friendly relations; however, there is need to further boost these through enhancing collaboration in the fields of literature, arts and culture.

"He said his division had earlier arranged an international calligraphy exhibition with the cooperation of Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), Turkey which has received over whelming response.

Following the same spirit, he said, we aspire to have collaboration with Tunisia to hold a joint calligraphy exhibition in Islamabad. "Ambassador Adel Elarbi said Tunisia wanted to have joint ventures with Pakistan in various fields of fine arts.

He expressed his interest in establishing Allama Iqbal Corner in one of the prominent education institutions of Tunisia. He also offered to arrange exchange visits of literary persons of Pakistan and Tunisia to help them understand each other’s culture. Later, the ambassador along with his wife visited National Library of Pakistan and Islamabad Museum.