25 delegates from Saudi Arabia to showcase Kingdom’s literary heritage India’s second-oldest book festival runs from Feb. 10-18 NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia will be in the spotlight at the New Delhi World Book Fair as guest of honor of its 2024 edition starting in the Indian capital on Saturday. Hosted at Pragati Maidan, the festival was inaugurated in 1972 and is India’s second oldest after the Kolkata Book Fair. Organized by the National Book Trust, India’s apex publishing body under the Ministry of Education, this year’s festival has been themed “Multilingual India — a living tradition” to showcase the country’s linguistic diversity. It will run from Feb. 10 to 18, featuring more than 1,000 publishers from India and around the world. Yuvraj Malik, director of the National Book Trust India, told Arab News that 25 delegates from Saudi Arabia would be presenting the Kingdom’s literary heritage as the book fair’s honorary guest. “Saudi Arabia holds the position of guest of honor at NDWBF 2024. The 25-member Saudi delegation will showcase literature, language, culture, and heritage,” he said. “Saudi Arabia’s exhibition will feature a diverse range of books, authors, and cultural elements.” Dr. Abdullatif Al-Wasel, publishing general manager of the Saudi Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission, told reporters during a press conference ahead of the event that the Saudi delegates were looking forward to the book fair. “This has been a long-awaited event for us to participate in,” he said, adding that it was also “very important” for the Kingdom that the fair was taking place in India, as bilateral ties had been steadily gaining prominence since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to New Delhi in 2019 and the signing of many memoranda of understanding, including in cultural affairs. “When you’re talking about the relationship between Saudi and India, it’s not only economics, it’s not only business and commercial, it extends to all aspects of life, social, culture,” Al-Wasel said. “The participation this year comes to commemorate this, and to officiate these MoUs ... One of the things that we’re working on is to activate cultural relations between India and Saudi Arabia.”