CRI听力:China-Russia Youth Year Launched in St. Petersburg

During President Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia last year, Xi and Putin agreed to hold the China-Russia Youth Year of Friendship Exchanges in 2014 and 2015, in the fourth themed program between the two sides, following the Year of Russia in China in 2006, the Year of China in Russia in 2007, Tourism Year in 2008 and the language years of 2009 and 2010.

The China-Russia Youth Year comes in 2014 as the two countries celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets attended the opening ceremony in St. Petersburg on Friday, at which they presented congratulatory messages from the heads of states.

In his message, President Xi Jinping said that the China-Russia Youth Year will advance the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Russia and China in a sustainable way, cultivate a lasting bond and also enhance pragmatic cooperation in a wide range of areas.

Co-hosting a meeting of the organizing committee of the China-Russia Youth Year with Golodets, Liu Yandong voiced her hope that the youth exchanges and interaction would inject new vigor into the development of bilateral ties.

"......The holding of the Youth Year is a new starting point for further progress. We should plan more events that will deepen friendship and foster a sense of affinity among young people from both sides, and activities that help enhance mutual understanding should be encouraged."

Her words were echoed by Golodets, who noted that Russia-China relations have reached their best point in history, and that well-developed people-to-people exchanges should further promote the Russia-China bilateral strategic partnership.

The youth-themed activities should be of great appeal to young people from both countries, especially those learning Russian in China, and Chinese in Russia.

"To be honest, even though I live and study in Russia, I have very limited access to cultural communication with my Russian friends. To gain mutual understanding, we really need more large-scale and well-organized activities."

As part of the Youth Year events, a youth exchange program involving 100 schools and 10,000 students from both countries, as well as an online interaction program involving 1 million students from both sides, were also launched on the same day.

For CRI, I'm LJ.