The meeting was held in Qazvin’s Imam Ali (as) Mosque on Saturday with 600 domestic and foreign figures and dignitaries participating. Minister of Roads and Urban Planning Abbas Akhundi, Ali Akbar Velayati, Leader’s Adviser, Ebrahim Rahimpour, Deputy-FM for Asia-Pacific Affairs, Chinese ambassador, and Bursa’s deputy-mayor are notable among the participants who addressed the meeting. The 11th meeting has as its main theme ‘Quality of Life in City.’
Velayati addressed the meeting where he believed that any revival of the Silk Road would benefit Iran and hence the country would welcome its revival. “Iran is an important part of the historical Silk Road; Qazvin has also played a part through the history, crossed by the Silk Road, helping spread Persian culture and language in China and other Asian countries, which also included Sa’adi’s poems which had been recited by the caravans and tradesmen travelling to China,” he detailed.
“Qazvin aptly hosts the meeting, since it had contributed to the Silk Road. The title was for the first time used by a German Ferdinand von Richthofen as title of his book, so it is not as old as the Road itself,” Velayati told the meeting. “Islam was also spread to the east by Iranian traders who pioneered Iranian and Islamic culture in China; Kashgar, a city in the Silk Road, have been subject to Persian language by the same caravans and now they are familiar with the language and have used Persian sources in their history books,” he said.
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