The headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco, in Rabat, was the venue for the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Three Cultures Foundation, a meeting which was attended by the President of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who was on an official visit to the Alawite country.
The meeting, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of this institution created in 1999 on the initiative of the Andalusian government and the Kingdom of Morocco, was an important endorsement for Tres Culturas, which received recognition from all those present, Andalusian and Moroccan patrons in equal parts, including the presence of the Palestinian writer and ambassador to UNESCO Elías Sanbar and Tsvia Walden, co-president of the Simon Peres Centre for Peace.
There have been many words of support for Tres Culturas, especially highlighting its important role in the complex international scenario. In this regard, the President of the Junta de Andalucía stressed that "the Foundation will have the firm support of the Andalusian Government. We are going to do so because, at a time when threats that we should not underestimate, such as fundamentalism of various kinds, exclusionary nationalism, violent radicalism, intolerance and xenophobia, are emerging or increasing, the way to confront these negative phenomena is to find the common values that unite us all, based on human rights, respect for people and equality of rights, duties and opportunities. And that is why the aspiration for peace, tolerance and coexistence that characterises the Three Cultures Foundation is more relevant today than ever and, consequently, institutions such as the Three Cultures Foundation are even more necessary.
Similarly, André Azoulay, advisor to H.M. the King of Morocco and president of the Foundation, stressed that Tres Culturas "is the space that the Kingdom of Morocco and Spain, the Spanish people and the Moroccan people, have chosen to remember and watch over Mediterranean values. Now more than ever we must mobilise and act with determination to defend, teach and promote the values of respect for others, dialogue, tolerance and peace.
The Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich; her Spanish counterpart in Morocco, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner; and the Minister of the Presidency of the Andalusian Regional Government and Delegate President of Tres Culturas, Elías Bendodo, among other trustees, also confirmed with their statements the good health of the Foundation, which faces its twentieth anniversary strengthened after this meeting in Rabat. Moreover, all the attendees agreed that this meeting was a milestone in the trajectory of Tres Culturas, a point from which a strategic reflection on the projection of this institution begins, in order to face the future with new and ambitious projects.
Afterwards, the members of the Board of Trustees went to the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco, where they inaugurated a photographic exhibition that reviews the history of the Three Cultures Foundation, with twenty images accompanied by texts written in Arabic, a travelling exhibition that can be seen in other Moroccan cities such as Tetouan, Essaouira and Marrakech.