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)
