Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Saudi permanent representative to UNESCO Princess Haifa bint Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin highlighted the importance of the Arabic and Saudi Arabia’s pioneering role in promoting the language.

The statement was made at a virtual meeting organized by UNESCO and the Kingdom’s delegation to the UN organization in cooperation with the Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Foundation to mark International Arabic Day.

On that occasion, Princess Haifa explained about the various steps the kingdom had taken to preserve the language, Arab News reported.

The envoy stressed the need to promote the language and use it as a means to spreading peace and building bridges between different nations.

She said the Arabic language is not only popular among Muslims due to its religious importance but it is gaining popularity among people of other faiths as well due to political, economic, academic, cultural and social reasons.

World Arabic Language Day has been commemorated annually on December 18 since 2012.

That date coincides with the day in 1973 that the U.N. General Assembly adopted Arabic as the sixth official language, in addition to Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Reporting by Indonesia Window