President Asif Ali Zardari arrived here on Tuesday to represent Pakistan at a high- level session of UN General Assembly on "Culture of Peace", to promote a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values. The meeting being held at the initiative of King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia is a follow-up to an interfaith conference in Madrid organised in collaboration with King Juan Carlos of Spain in July.
The Madrid conference brought together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and representatives of other religions and sparked hopes of a new relationship among religions. President Zardari was received at the airport by Pakistan's ambassador to United States Hussain Haqqani, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and other senior US and Pakistani officials.