SCO culture ministers to meet in Astana

ASTANA, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - A cultural program of the jubilee summit
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) slated for June will be the
main topic for discussion at a conference of cultural ministers of the SCO
member countries as well as the heads of delegations of observer states
and dialogue partners to be held on Thursday, Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed, the
minister of culture of Kazakhstan, told Itar-Tass.
He emphasized that straight from the outset Russia and Kazakhstan had
been active partners and had agreed to meet ahead of the meeting of the
heads of state to discuss all the issues related to the summit.
In the rest, the meeting will be of common nature and won't dwell on
any thorny issues.
"Culture is a sphere that doesn't know ideological, state or language
boundaries. It always calls for unity," Kul-Mukhammed went on to say.
He said that he meets his Russian colleague Alexander Avdeyev who has
also arrive in Astana for the conference only if there's a need.
"We don't observe any diplomatic formalities in this matter, and all
our actions on cooperation often take place outside the protocol," the
Kazakh minister of culture said.
He recalled that maestro Valery Gergiyev and the Orchestra of the
Mariinsky Theatre had recently visited Kazakhstan as part of the Easter
festival.
"Every year, Gergiyev holds it in Russian. But this year he made an
exception and came to Kazakhstan. It's true that the Easter festival had a
religious nature. But we lived in one culture for 70 years, and our
relations with Russia are very close," Kul-Mukhammed emphasized.
At a conference to be held at the Radisson SAS hotel the SCO ministers
of culture will share information on how their countries implement the
provisions of inter-governmental agreements on cultural cooperation.
The second meeting of the Council for Culture set up under the
Executive Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community will be held at the
Radisson SAS hotel after the conference of the culture ministers.
Alexander Avdeyev will deliver a message of greeting.
Both events will produce final protocols. Their participants will
attend an art festival on Thursday evening. Artists from Kazakhstan,
Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and China will perform on the stage of the
central concert hall "Kazakhstan."
The State Academic Russian Concert Orchestra "Boyan" will represent
Russia at the festival.
The artists will also give performances in two other Kazakh cities-
Kokchetav and Karaganda.