UNESCO chief nominee Khaled El-Enany pledges closer cooperation with China

PARIS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- UNESCO's sole candidate for director-general, Khaled El-Enany, has said the organization will work together with China across all areas, highlighting heritage preservation as a key shared priority.

A former Egyptian minister of Tourism and Antiquities, El-Enany was nominated for the top UNESCO post during the 222nd session of the agency's Executive Board on Oct. 6 in Paris. His nomination will be submitted to the UNESCO General Conference for approval on Nov. 6 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

"China is a great country and a major partner of UNESCO. I have visited several times and was very warmly received," El-Enany told Xinhua in a recent interview. He praised China's Global Civilization Initiative, saying the world needs efforts that "bring peoples closer together, foster dialogue among civilizations, and combat hate speech, ignorance, and supremacism."

Born in 1971, El-Enany began his career as a tour guide and is now a professor of Egyptology at Helwan University, where he has taught for more than three decades. If confirmed, he would become the first Arab and only the second African to lead UNESCO since its founding 80 years ago.

El-Enany said his nomination reflects the growing role of the Global South in international governance. "This election sends a positive signal of multilateralism in motion," he noted. "At a time when multilateralism is in retreat, this is a sign of hope."

Looking ahead, he said UNESCO must evolve to meet new challenges. "UNESCO needs to be faster, closer to people, less bureaucratic, and adapted to the future," he said, stressing the need for a "coherent and strong team," innovative funding, and a shared vision built by "the entire UNESCO family."

"This is the pragmatic approach I wish to embody-based on listening, cooperation, and solidarity: a UNESCO that serves everyone, rooted in realities on the ground yet guided by a universal vision," he said. ■