Publish Date: 10 May 2013 - 20:48

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyed Mohammad Hosseini held separate meetings with his counterparts from the member states of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Tehran

Culture ministers of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Brunei and deputy culture minister of the Philippines conferred with Hosseini on the sidelines of the first meeting of Culture Ministers of member states of the ACD in Tehran on Wednesday.

The ministers called for more cooperation with Iran on cultural issues.

They also urged transfer of Iran's art and culture experiences in the fields of cinema, visual arts, theatre and book, and asked for holding Iran's cultural and film weeks in their countries.

Considering Iran's good experiences in the field of higher education and art and cultural education, especially in the field of cinema, the senior officials asked to send their students to Iran to take short term courses.

The 1st meeting of ACD culture ministers opened here on Tuesday. Culture ministers from 32 ACD member states are reviewing cultural interactions during the two-day event.

The ACD was formed in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian Foreign Ministers met together for the first time. The ACD is a continent-wide forum, the first of its kind in Asia. More specifically, the ACD aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others.

The ACD member states include Iran, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, The Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Brunei, Mongolia, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Bahrain.