Greece’s Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni visited Qatar from April 3 to 5 at the invitation of her Qatari counterpart Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali.
During her visit, she discussed a plan of cultural exchanges with government and museum officials.
According to the ministry, a joint work group will be formed to discuss definite and immediate plans, including planning a Greece-Qatar Culture Year.
“We are moving forward in a substantial cooperation, which will have obvious results and an important imprint on the relations between the two countries. The people of Qatar show great interest in Greek Culture, both for our cultural heritage and for contemporary artistic creation,” Mendoni said.
On her part, Qatar’s Museums Authority, Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani expressed her admiration for Greek Culture and noted that exhibitions jointly designed by the two countries can travel to major international museums.
As a first step, Greece will participate in the Doha International Book Fair in January 2022, and Qatar in the Thessaloniki International Book Fair in 2022. Other cultural events highlighting the visiting country will also be planned along the fairs’ sidelines.
In addition, the collaboration of the two countries will include translations of books between the two languages.
While in Doha, Mendoni also met with Archbishop Makarios of Qatar, and with members of the Greek community working in the country.
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