TEHRAN – The National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) and the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Monday to expand their cooperation on librarianship and information science.

The MOU was inked in a virtual meeting between NLAI director Ashraf Borujerdi and National Library of Indonesia director Muhammad Syarif Bando, the NLAI announced.

“We feel really happy and honored about the MOU that will help improve cultural relations between Iran and Indonesia,” Borujerdi said in the meeting.

“As the largest Islamic country of the world with a culturally diverse population, Indonesia has always had close, friendly relations with Iran, and due to the broad scope of cultural exchange, conditions are excellent for the expansion of relations between the countries,” she added.

Based on the MOU, the libraries will collaborate on expert exchange, education, restoration of manuscripts and launching plans to raise knowledge of librarianship among the staff of the libraries.

“The NLAI is also very interested to focus on joint research projects on Islamic and Iranian studies with Indonesian scholars,” Borujerdi said and added, “Working on joint projects on the subjects can help foster religious and cultural ties between the two countries.”

For his part, Syarif Bando also pointed to the variety of cultural subjects that can be regarded in the MOU, and said that there are 400 Persian words in the Indonesian language, representing the long history of cultural relations between Iran and Indonesia.

He officially invited Borujerdi to visit Indonesia in the near future.

Indonesian Ambassador Ronny P. Yuliantoro and Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Azad were also in attendance at the meeting.

Photo: This combination photo shows views of the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas) and the National Library and Archives of Iran.

MMS/YAW