Today the Chairman of the Senate of RK Parliament, Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions within the third Inter-Religious Congress held in Astana had a number of bilateral meetings with leaders of delegations, representatives of different confessions and international organizations participating in the work of the Congress.

In the course of the conversations there was noted the large significance and high level of holding of the forum which raised the dialogue of civilizations to a qualitatively new stage of mutual understanding of the cooperation between countries. The participants and guests of the Congress unanimously stated that this interconfessional institute which was created by the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and became traditional received wide international recognition, occupies worthy position in the world community's efforts on the interreligious dialogue development and is an important contribution of Kazakhstan  to maintenance of peace and stability on the planet.

During the meeting with the Counselor to the President of the United Arab Emirates for religious and legal affairs Seid ali-Hashimi the talk was about the necessity of  strengthening of interreligious partnership, further development of interconfessional dialogue for the purpose of preservation and strengthening of the values of modern civilization.

The parties with satisfaction noted dynamically developing relations between Kazakhstan and UAE the evidence of which is active participation of UAE delegation in the work of the Congress. In this regard Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized that in comparison with previous forums the Third Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions is more representative and its agenda allows covering a wider range of urgent problems of modernity.

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During the conversation with the Counselor to the President of the Islamic Republic Iran, president of the Organization for culture and Islamic relations Seyed Mehdi Mustafi the discussion was about the necessity of embodiment of the idea of cooperation and unity of representatives of different religions in the name of peaceful and worthy life of people of the whole planet.

Expressing satisfaction with successful development of Kazakhstani-Iranian relations the parties noted that the recent visit of President M. Ahmadinejad to Astana demonstrated mutual aspiration of the two countries for further development and strengthening of multisided cooperation in different areas. At that the Speaker of Kazakhstan Senate emphasized the important role of Iran in formation of regional and international policy and likeness of the positions of two countries in a number of geopolitical problems.

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The urgent issues of enhancement of interreligious harmony, mutual respect to each other, ability to learn on he traditions of other people were raised in the course of the meeting with the first Deputy State Minister for affairs of Islam and waqfs of the State of Kuwait Adil al-Fallah who has emphasized that today Kazakhstan appeared before the whole world as the country which reached genuine public and interreligious accord and unity.

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The role of the religion in the secular state, universal character of its spiritual values was discussed during the meeting with the Chairman of the Administration for religious affairs, Chief Mufti of Turkey Ali Bardakoglu.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highly estimated the contribution of the Turkish delegation to the work of the Congress. It is necessary to develop the dialogue of different cultures and civilizations giving priority to spiritual values which should provide peaceful life of the whole humanity on the planet, provide harmony, stability and unity of the world community. But at the same time, emphasized the Speaker, it is extremely important to exclude use of religious ideology for justification of dubious political aims.

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The dialogue between Muslims, Christians, representative of any other confessions must lead to deeper understanding of the problems of international security - such was the leitmotif of the meeting of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with the Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muhammad Halid Masud and the President of the International Islamic University of Islamabad Anvar Siddiki. In the sovereign Kazakhstan this dialogue is entirely supported by the state and spiritual leaders. The country's attention is directed towards provision of the guarantee of complete equality of rights of all citizens, strengthening of international and interethnical accord in the country, said K. Tokayev.

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During the meeting with the President of the Union of Christian Churches of America, archpriest Leonid Kishkovski the conversation was about the Kazakhstan initiative on holding of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional religions which occupied a deserving position in the system of international measures seeking international dialogue. He gave a high estimation to the forum held in Astana, emphasizing that the singularity of the third Congress is that it gathered together both the religious leaders and the authoritative political figures.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in his turn thanked the USA delegation for the active participation in the work of the Congress and expressed hope for deepening of further cooperation.

Press Service of the Senate of RK Parliament