Soka Gakkai Joins World Interfaith Congress in Kazakhstan

On September 14 and 15, Soka Gakkai Vice President Hirotsugu Terasaki participated in the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave welcoming remarks, followed by His Holiness Pope Francis, Grand Imam of al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef, and UN Secretary General H.E. António Guterres, who sent a video message. During a plenary session, Mr. Terasaki gave a speech based on President Daisaku Ikeda’s 2022 peace proposal and expressed the Soka Gakkai’s commitment to interfaith solidarity. Prior to the event, on September 13, Mr. Terasaki met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Adil Tursunov, who expressed his hope that the Soka Gakkai and Kazakhstan will continue to cooperate on efforts for nuclear disarmament.