The Second Dialogue of Friendship Associations of Countries with Ancient Civilizations was held on Wednesday in Dunhuang, Gansu Province.

This dialogue is one of the many events taking place during the 6th Silk Road International Cultural Expo, which aims to foster cultural exchanges between China and other countries along the ancient Silk Road.

Representatives of friendship associations that are working with China and international organizations from more than 20 countries participated in the dialogue.

Through several keynote speeches, many of these figures shared information about projects that foster deeper cultural connections and boost people-to-people exchanges.

"We have founded a cooperation program between Italy and China where Italy promotes Chinese culture in culinary arts and Chinese traditional cuisine (through) the first international Chinese cuisine school, the first in the world," said Maria Moreni, president of the Italy-China Link Association.

Another representative also advocated for the importance of ancient civilization inheritance and that of carrying forward their cultural heritage through the recovery of stolen cultural artifacts.

Abdel Fattah Ezzeldin, a council member of the Egypt-China Friendship Association, said, "It's important, of course, first to recognize that these countries whose artifacts were usurped deserve to have them back. A lot of artifacts were stolen, in fact, or were smuggled illegally. Recognize that these things pertain to these countries and then return (it to) them. We can discuss it and find solutions."

Overall, this dialogue demonstrated that by strengthening mutual exchanges and mutual learning, human civilizations will be able to learn from each other.

Moreni further said, "I think it's very important in places like here that we can feel more open to share and to invest in art and sharing our culture, art, and traditions."

"I hope, really, for the next event that more and more countries will join, especially young people, more universities, more museums... (There should be) meetings for young people, for women, for other multicultural nations," she added.