On 20 September 2024, the Beijing Peace Garden hosted the 11th Peace Festival and the 6th International Youth Photography Contest.
The event was sponsored by the UNESCO Mission to China, the Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation, the Association of Public Organisations of PRC Radio and Television, the Cultural division of the Austrian Embassy to China, the Embassy of Turkmenistan to China, and others.
The festival has been held annually since 2014. This time, the festival’s motto is “Diversity and Dialogue: Indispensable Path toward Global Peace and Development.”
The opening ceremony was addressed by Director of the Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation Li Ruohong, Vice President of the Association of Public Organisations of PRC Radio and Television Tong Gang, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to China Parakhat Durdyev, and others.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Sohail Khan participated in the events and delivered greetings on behalf of the SCO Secretariat. He noted in his remarks that cultural and scientific information exchanges and inter-civilisational studies were an important driving force of human progress as well as peace and development on the planet. He stressed that the strengthening and intensification of mutual ties and exchanges between nations and peoples in the SCO space and the search for peaceful solutions to the arising crises, given the central guiding and coordinating role of the UN, promoted global security and sustained development in countries all over the world.
The most active participants from the SCO Family countries were the embassies of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan.