The Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan said, “We need Al-Azhar's expertise in the field of dialogue and peace”. 

Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif received, on Tuesday, an official delegation from the State of Azerbaijan headed by Mr. Athar Karimov, Minister of Culture of the State of Azerbaijan, accompanied by Ambassador Toral Anaroğlu, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Egypt, and a number of officials, to discuss ways of cultural cooperation. The Grand Imam pointed out that Al-Azhar is pleased to receive Azerbaijani students along with their fellow foreign students to benefit from Al-Azhar's disciplines and draw on its moderate approach, noting that there is interest and readiness to increase the number of the granted scholarships and the reception of imams in order to boost academic and cultural cooperation, and refine imams with Al-Azhar’s moderate approach and speech.

On his part, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture expressed his pleasure  for meeting the Grand Imam who represents the voice of wisdom along with the global impact he represents, stressing that  the Azerbaijani government and its people are following with interest the role of the Grand Imam and Al-Azhar in boosting the values of tolerance, peace and dialogue. He also pointed out that Azerbaijan holds an annual forum for dialogue between the followers of religions, stressing his country's keenness to benefit from the expertise of Al-Azhar in this field.