Regarding the two central regions of this meeting, we would like to specify the following:

• Inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, Nowruz is an ancient celebration that marks the beginning of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on 21 March. The day is celebrated in different countries by many communities with ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity but with a common historical background and cultural traditions. The Nowruz Cultural Sphereincludes a vast cultural region from the Kashmir mountains to the Mediterranean coasts and from the Central Asian and Caucasian regions to the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.
• The Ibero-American World includes the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, and the Caribbean. When Europeans arrived on the American continent at the end of the 15th Century, Spain and Portugal took over part of it. After three centuries of colonial rule, in the 19th century, most countries of Spanish and Portuguese America reached independence, and Ibero-America refers to this common past but also to the two languages of the Iberian Peninsula (Spanish and Portuguese) that unite countries and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.