The first round of “Afghanistan-Iran Cultural Dialogue”, organized jointly by the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) and Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU) on December 4-5, 2016 in Tehran, Iran. A group of ten members of Afghan delegation, led by former information and culture minister, Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen attended the dialogue. The Afghan delegation was comprised of senior Afghan government representatives, cultural and civil society activist, journalists and AISS senior researchers.

On December 4, three sessions were held with discussion on the “Cooperation and Cultural Diplomacy”, “Language, Literature and Communication” and “The Perspective of Afghanistan and Iran Cultural-Diplomatic Relation”. On December 5, two sessions were held with the discussion on “Common Cultural Elements”.

During this cultural dialogue, a book exhibition was held presenting published books in Farsi, Pashto and English languages including some of the printed media of Afghanistan. On the sidelines of this dialogue, the AISS held a joint meeting with Institute for Political and International Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran (IPIS) and parties discussed on cultural diplomacy in Iran and Afghanistan’s relation. The ministry of foreign affairs of Iran hosted this meeting.