The Emirati's election is a tribute to his long government service
Image: WAM
Zaki Nusseibeh, Cultural Adviser to the UAE President and Chancellor of the United Arab Emirates University, has become the first Emirati to join as an Associate Foreign Member of L'Académie des Sciences Morales and Politiques (the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) in a ceremony held under the Cupola of the Institut de France in Paris.
The Institut de France is a premier society of learning created in 1795 and comprises five Academies, of which L'Académie des Sciences Morales and Politiques is the youngest.
Nusseibeh’s election to the Académie is a tribute to his long government service, during which he has enriched the UAE’s cultural and education foundations and its foreign affairs, in particular developing close bonds between the UAE, the global Francophonie, and prestigious cultural and educational institutions of France.
The Installation Ceremony was presided over by the president of the Académie, Professor Emeritus of Arabic and religious philosophy, Rémi Brague, who specialises in Islamic, Jewish and Christian thought of the Middle Ages.
Nusseibeh was presented by the Perpetual Secretary of the Académie, geographer Professor Jean-Robert Pitte, who presented the UAE official as “a citizen of the world, a representative of an Orient open to all cultures, and a peacemaker, a mission inscribed in the genes of his family for nearly 14 centuries”.
He said that Nusseibeh is “a man of exquisite delicacy and a most pleasant manner, full of humour and empathy.”
Pitte paid tribute to the cultural influence of the UAE and its recent rapprochement with Israel, in which he sees hope for progress in peace and inter-religious dialogue. He noted that Nusseibeh is the author of numerous publications devoted to cultural diplomacy, the fight against extremism and the pursuit of tolerance. Professor Pitte read a salutation written in honour of Nusseibeh by a fellow Foreign Associate Member, Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan.
ALSO READ: