Dr Mabrouk Kraiem, the acting Director General of the Africa-Arab Cultural Institute, and the Director of Administration and Finance, accompanied by Mr. Mohamed Misbaho Traore, Head of Human Resources, visited His Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Republic of Mali, Mr. Abdullah Saleh Saber, at the embassy headquarters in Bamako on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
This visit aimed at strengthening cooperation between the Africa-Arab Cultural Institute and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Acting Director of the Institute presented an overview of the Institute, its objectives, the decisions that led to its establishment, and its activities and programs for 2025. He praised the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s support for the Institute, most notably the financial grant provided to the Institute in 2003 to equip its library, and the hosting by Saudi Ministry of Higher Education of the tenth session of the Institute’s Executive Council in 2010 in Riyadh.
He took this opportunity to propose joint cooperation to implement some of the Institute’s activities, by handing two letters to His Excellency the Ambassador to kindly transmit one letter to the Saudi Ministry of Culture about signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Institute and hosting an exhibition under the theme: “African and Arab Crafts Exhibition: A Bridge for Cultural and Economic Communication”, and the second letter addressed to the King Abdulaziz Public Library requesting to host a “Training course in manuscript restoration and conservation for 15 museums and manuscript centers specialists in Africa and the Arab world.”
For his part, His Excellency the Ambassador welcomed the Institute’s delegation, commended the visit, and appreciated the Institute’s projects and objectives. He pledged to strengthen cooperation with the Institute to implement its activities and promised to transmit the Institute’s correspondences to the relevant authorities.