Foreign ministers from the European Union and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) today began talks aimed at drawing Christian and Muslim states closer following the September 11th US attacks.
The two-day summit, called for and hosted by Turkey, comes after attacks against Muslim interests in the West following the terrorist attacks in the United States and massive Muslim demonstrations in the Muslim world against the US-led military strikes against Afghanistan.
The meeting in Istanbul's historic Ciragan palace is being attended by several ministers from both the OIC and the EU, including Mr Joschka Fischer of Germany, Mr Hubert Vedrine of France, Mr Jack Straw of Britain, Mr Amr Moussa of Egypt, Mr Faruq al-Shara of Syria, Mr Kamal Kharazi of Iran and Mr Naji Sabri of Iraq.
They will discuss issues such as cultural and political differences, politics and media strategies and how different cultures view each other.
"The tragedy of September 11 . . . has shown how vulnerable the basic understanding among different cultures and civilisations is, and how easy it is for deep-rooted prejudices to surface," Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Ismail Cem said in his opening statement.
He said the EU and the OIC had a "joint responsibility" to contribute to efforts to achieve dialogue between different cultures and civilisations.
The participating ministers are also expected to hold bilateral meetings on the sideliness of the forum to discuss international and regional issues.
AFP