CAIRO, Sept 9, 2018 - Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anani on Sunday held a meeting with visiting Kazakh Minister of Civil Society Affairs Darkhan Kaletayev. They discussed ways of boosting bilateral relations in the archaeological field as well as the progress achieved on projects being implemented by the two countries. The talks focused on co-operation over resuming the restoration work, which was suspended in 2011, on the Mosque of al-Zahir Baybars in Cairo. During the meeting, Minister el-Anani stressed the depth of the cultural relations between Egypt and Kazakhstan and voiced his ministry's keenness on exchanging expertise with the Kazakh side in the archaeological field. The meeting was attended by the Kazakh ambassador in Cairo and the Director General of the Historic Cairo Project, Mohamed Abdel Aziz. In another meeting, Minister Anani discussed with a senior Indian official ways of boosting archaeological co-operation between Egypt and India. The discussions also covered the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ban the stealing and smuggling of Egypt's cultural and archaeological property. Another MoU was signed with the Indian side to protect and preserve the antique pieces smuggled to India and to restore them to Egypt.
