China and Russia have undertaken fruitful cooperation in education, culture, health and sports to further consolidate their partnership of strategic cooperation in the past years, Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing said Thursday in Moscow.
Li, who is on an official visit to Russia, co-chaired with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko the third session of the China-Russia Cooperation Committee on Education, Culture, Health and Sports.
The meeting came following the first anniversary of the Chinese-Russian Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and the successful summit between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in St. Petersburg.
The treaty set the course of Sino-Russian cooperation in the new century and the heads of state of the two countries had reached consensus on developing bilateral ties, Li said.
He highly valued the work done by the cooperation committee over the past two years and suggested the two sides draw a future blueprint for the committee.
On her part, Matviyenko told Li that the Russian side considered the treaty a legal foundation for the two countries to undertake and deepen political, economic and people-to-people cooperation.
She also said that the two sides cooperated well within the committee and believed the committee would play a more important role in promoting the good-neighborly friendship between the two nations for the generations to come.
Russia was ready to continue enhancing cooperation with China within the framework of the committee, and to make unremitting efforts to further advance the Russian-Chinese partnership, she added.
Russia New Tourist Destination for Chinese
China and Russia agreed Thursday in Moscow to designate Russia as a new destination for Chinese tourists.
Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko announced the news to the press after the third session of the China-Russia Cooperation Committee on Education, Culture, Health and Sports.
The China National Tourism Administration and the Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding for organizing Chinese tourists to Russia.
The two sides also agreed to set up a working group for radio, TV and film cooperation.
During the meeting, Chinese Education Minister Chen Zhili and her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Filippov, briefed the participants on the work done by the committee during the past year and exchanged views on cooperation projects in education, culture, health, sports and tourism.
(Edited from People's Daily, July 19, 2002)
