On December 15th, Ambassador Guo Min met with Elnur Aliyev, CEO of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center via video link, and exchanged views on the traditional friendly contacts between the two sides and future cooperation plans.

Elnur Aliyev said that Center of Nizami Ganjavi is an international academic and cultural exchange center established at the personal initiative of President Ilham Aliyev, which has high popularity and extensive influence in Europe and the CIS region. Over the years, the Nizami Ganjavi International Center has paid close attention to international hotspot issues and actively devoted itself to promoting dialogue and cooperation among academic and cultural circles of various countries on the platform of large-scale international exchanges such as the Baku Global Forum. In recent years, the center has been in close cooperation with relevant Chinese institutions, and has jointly organized many international exchange activities and achieved fruitful results. The center attaches great importance to the development of relations with China and is willing to continue to work closely with China to actively promote people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between Azerbaijan and China under the framework of the "Belt and Road Initiative", so as to continuously enhance the friendship and mutual trust between the two peoples.

Ambassador Guo Min said that the Nizami Ganjavi International Center has established a regular cooperation mechanism with a number of cultural and academic institutions in China and has repeatedly invited the Chinese delegation to attend the Baku Global Forum in Azerbaijan, held regular online and offline academic seminars, and The Beijing High-level meeting of the Baku Global Forum was successfully held in Beijing in 2019. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in China at the beginning of this year, The board of directors of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center sent letters to President Xi Jinping to express its condolences and donated batches of anti-epidemic medical supplies to China through multiple channels and invited its members to shoot promotional videos to firmly support China's fight against the pandemic, for which China is deeply grateful.

Ambassador Guo Min stressed that diversity spurs interaction among civilizations, which in turn promotes mutual learning and further development. Increased people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning, for that matter, are a sure way to eliminate estrangement and misunderstanding and to promote mutual understanding among nations. The Embassy of China in Azerbaijan is willing to continue deepening its close cooperation with the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and promoting China's participation of high-level delegations to the Baku Global Forum. We will invite more Chinese academic and cultural institutions to establish contacts with the center, open up extensive cooperation channels, and promote various forms of cooperation. We will further promote people-to-people exchanges between China and Azerbaijan, uphold the concept of openness, inclusiveness, exchanges and mutual learning, and jointly build a peaceful, harmonious and beautiful world and a community of shared future for mankind.