/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku is hosting the third World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva are attending the ceremony, which officially opened on May 18.

The 3rd World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue is being held in Baku in close collaboration with the government of Azerbaijan, UNESCO, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the World Tourism Organization, the Council of Europe and Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).

The event is dedicated to the theme: “Culture and sustainable development in the post-2015 development agenda".

The World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, also known as the “Baku Process”, was initiated in 2008. Two previous editions were held in 2011 and in 2013. It has become a global platform for exchange and discussion on major contemporary challenges pertaining to intercultural dialogue and the sharing of related universal values, which have become pressing issues to address in our globalized and more and more diverse societies.

This open forum aims to reaffirm the imperative need to consolidate and intensify dialogue among peoples from different cultures, religions or beliefs, in order to create, at the national, regional and global levels, an environment conducive to respect for cultural diversity, human rights and mutual understanding.