French Ambassador Bertrand Besancenot awarded here last night L'Ordre des Palmes académiques ( Order of Academic Palms) rank of Commander for the Assistant Under Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information for Foreign Information Dr. Abdulaziz Bin Saleh Binsalamah. This came in a ceremony held Monday evening at the ambassador's residence in Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh to honor the people who devote their time to defend their cultures and languages of Arabic and French. For his part, Dr. Abdulaziz Binsalamh expressed his delight over this beautiful and wonderful occasion, pointing out that he was able to take advantage of this broad spectrum between the two countries when he was honored to represent Saudi Arabia to the UNESCO and the other organizations. He reiterated that the desire was much greater than the energy to do a lot of contributions in the field of the promotion of cultural and media relations between Saudi Arabia and France. The Ambassador also awarded the, Order of Academic Palms with rank of Officer to the Vice President for Antiquities and Museums at the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities Ali Al Ghaban , as well as the Order of the Palme Academy's 'Knight' award to the Associate Professor, KSU's (King Saud University) Department of French Language at the Faculty of European Languages and Translation, Dr. Salih al-Enizio, in recognition of their efforts in the service of French language and culture. The Order of Academic Palms is the oldest and one of the highest medals of Honor. It was created by Napoleon in 1808 in order to honor eminent members of the University of Paris and then widened in 1866 in Napoleon III to include major contributions to french education from local and foreigners.
