"We commit ourselves to pursuing two ambitious and long-term objectives to ensure the mobilization of the international community for the preservation of the heritage: The establishment of an international fund for the protection of cultural heritage in danger in times of armed conflict… The creation of an international network of shelters to temporarily safeguard cultural property endangered by armed conflicts or terrorism on their territory," the text of the declaration released on the French Foreign Ministry's website showed.
The fund will finance preventive or emergency measures, combat illicit trafficking in cultural property and participate in the restoration of damaged cultural property.
According to the declaration, a follow-up conference will be held in 2017 to evaluate the implementation of the initiatives and the first projects financed by the fund.
The meeting was organized in part as a response to the destruction and looting of archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria by the Daesh terrorist group, which is outlawed in Russia and the United States, among many other counties.
In 2015, Daesh militants destroyed some of the antiquities, including a 2,000-year arch and two pre-Islamic temples, in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The group also bulldozed Nimrud, an ancient Assyrian city, located 30 kilometers south of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
