The culture ministers of the member-countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) -- Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan - meet in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Tuesday to discuss the situation in the field of culture and mutual moral and spiritual enrichment-related matters.

A ceremony to declare open the 4th conference of the SCO culture ministers is to begin at the Kohi Vahdat public center with a speech of greetings by Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Akil Akilov.

The two-day discussions will focus on cooperation in 2007-2008, the process of preparations for an art festival of SCO countries in Bishkek in June this year, the publication of a colourful album entitled "Dialogue of Civilisations -- Overview of the Culture of SCO Member-States", and a number of other events.

The delegations are to tour an exhibition of decorative and applied arts and folk crafts of SCO countries (with the exhibition being timed to coincide with the ministerial meeting), and get acquainted with the unique items of the Antiquities of Tajikistan national museum, which features a Buddhist culture monument of the early Middle Ages -- a 14-metre clay sculpture Buddha in Nirvana clay sculpture -- and attend the Rustam and Sukhrob performance to bepresented by Dushanbe-based Russian drama theater named after Vladimir Mayakovksy.

The SCO ministers are to adopt a declaration as a result of their meeting.