During a meeting of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza with director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) Mustafa El-Fiki at the presidential residence in Lisbon 20 October, de Souza said that he would like to visit Egypt and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

De Souza underlined that Egyptian civilisation is one of the oldest in the world.

"If there are countries whose history is measured by hundreds of years, the history of Egypt dates back thousands of years," he said, referring to distinguished relations between Egypt and Portugal.

For his part, El-Fiki thanked the Portuguese president for the warm welcome, affirming that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina plays a vital role in reinforcing cultural relations between Egypt and European countries, especially in the context of a deepening intercultural dialogue and study of the cultural interaction between the countries of southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

El-Fiki delivered a lecture at the "Islam Today and Intercultural Dialogue" conference in which he stressed the importance of dialogue between cultures, cooperation in confronting extremism, while emphasising that Islam promotes positive coexistence among peoples and international peace.

On the sidelines of the international conference, which was attended by a number of international personalities, El-Fiki visited the National Library in Portugal and discussed the prospects of cooperation between the library and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

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