Premier Li Keqiang hailed youth and media exchanges between China and Russia at the closing ceremony of China-Russia Youth Friendly Exchange Year in Beijing on Dec 17.
The ceremony also marked the start of China-Russia Media Exchange Year.
Speaking highly of the success of the youth exchange year, Premier Li said that as ancient but young countries, both China and Russia enjoy long and great history and culture and have the spirit to reform.
Instead of being the end of the journey, the closing of youth exchange year is a new start of China-Russia friendship in which media plays an important role. The Chinese Maker, an episode of China-filmed microfilms Hello, China, is widely popular in Russia as more than 100 million people have watched it, indicating willingness to communicate and share between the people of the two countries, he said.
“If young people were the most active ‘cells’ of the society, media should be the most acute ‘nerves’ reflecting the change of the era as well as the most effective channel promoting youth exchange and people-to-people communication,” he said.
He hopes that media of the two countries can have a deeper understanding of both countries’ national conditions and cultures, promote further communication and understanding between the people of the two countries, and send clear signals of comprehensive China-Russia cooperation in maintaining regional stability and world peace.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also attended the ceremony and said that China-Russia Youth Friendly Exchange Year provides an important opportunity for better communication and understanding between the young people of the two countries and accumulates huge potential for the development of bilateral ties.
He hopes media of the two countries will actively participate the activities of the media exchange year and provide more high-quality public goods, promoting friendship between the people of both countries.
Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets also attended the ceremony.
