China, Russia to promote high-quality development in humanities cooperation

MOSCOW, Aug. 19 -- Chinese State Councilor Shen Yiqin and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova co-chaired the 25th session of the China-Russia Committee on Humanities Cooperation in Moscow on Monday, pledging to further boost people-to-people exchanges and cultural cooperation.

Shen, also the Chinese chairman of the China-Russia Committee on Humanities Cooperation, said that people-to-people exchanges constitute an important part of China-Russia relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin jointly attended the opening ceremony of the China-Russia Years of Culture and the special concert celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Russia in May this year, fully reflecting their high regard for China-Russia people-to-people exchanges, she said.

Under the strategic guidance of both leaders, China and Russia have continuously enriched the content of humanitarian cooperation, with more comprehensive cooperation plans, more robust communication mechanisms, more prominent leading brands, and deeper people-to-people exchanges, she said, adding that such endeavors have yielded a series of new achievements and made positive contributions to consolidating the social and public opinion foundation for the friendly relations between China and Russia through generations.

Shen noted that the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stressed the expansion of international cooperation of people-to-people exchanges, which will inject new impetus into China-Russia humanities cooperation.

Both sides should take the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as a new starting point, earnestly implement the important consensus of both heads of state, promote the implementation of relevant humanitarian cooperation plans, jointly make successful key activities such as the China-Russia Years of Culture, and co-write a new chapter of high-quality development in humanitarian cooperation, she said.

For her part, Golikova, the Russian chairman of the committee, highly praised the fruitful results achieved in Russia-China humanitarian cooperation and expressed her willingness to continue deepening and expanding practical cooperation in the field of humanities with China to enhance the in-depth development of bilateral relations.

During the session, they witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in relevant fields and jointly met the press.