China and Russia have pledged to expand and deepen their cultural and humanitarian cooperation, according to a joint communique issued on Tuesday by the two countries during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Russia.

 

The communique was signed by the visiting Chinese Premier and his Russian counterpart Viktor Zubkov at the 12th regular prime ministers' talks between China and Russia.

 

It said that cultural cooperation is of great significance to the formation of a broad social and solid ideological foundation for the establishment of a Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation.

 

The two sides agreed to expand student exchanges, jointly train undergraduates and postgraduates and hold regular education exhibitions in both countries.

 

The two sides pledged to promote Russian language education in China and Chinese language education in Russia. They also agreed to hold "Russian Language Year" in China in 2009, and "Chinese Language Year" in Russia in 2010.

 

According to the communique, the two neighboring countries will set up cultural centers and organize cultural and movie festivals in each country.

 

The two countries also agreed to enhance their cooperation in the field of infectious disease-prevention and control, the development of traditional medicine and to strengthen the supervision of the circulation of medical products.

 

The two countries agreed also to expand tourism exchange and improve the quality of tourism services, and strengthen exchanges between Chinese and Russian news media.

 

The Chinese side pledged in the communique that it is willing to provide the necessary support to the Russian delegation during the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

 

The two sides agreed to hold the 13th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian prime ministers in Russia next year.

 

The Chinese Premier arrived here Monday for a two-day official visit to Russia after concluding a visit to Belarus.

 

Russia is the last leg of Wen's four-nation tour, which also took him to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)