Conference on Afghanistan and its geographical context

Capacity Building: IAP’s flagship programme provided support for the TWAS conference on “Afghanistan and its geographical context: development of a regional network of cultural and scientific cooperation”, organized in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was held in Trieste, Italy, 26 June 2009, as a run-up to the G8 Summit in L’Aquila.

Representatives from academies of science in Afghanistan, India, Italy, Pakistan and Turkey were present. A detailed summary is available at www.twas.org. In addition to Minister Frattini, the opening session of the conference featured speeches by Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan, and Hon. Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan.

The conference was attended by more than 100 participants. It included presidents and representatives of the Afghan, Chinese, Egyptian, Indian, Iranian, Italian, Pakistani, Russian and Turkish academies of sciences and heads of scientific centres in Italy. For more information on the event, see: www.twas.org