Xi's Russia visit yields concrete results(2)

HIGHLIGHTS OF PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES

Besides increasingly interwoven economic ties and steady high-level political contacts, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries are also in full blossom, which, experts said, will yield more fruitful results and benefit the two peoples in the long run.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Year of Chinese Tourism in Russia on Friday, Xi called on the two countries to nurture tourism cooperation as "a new highlight of bilateral strategic cooperation."

Official figures showed that 343,000 trips were made from China to Russia in 2012, up 46 percent year on year.

Following the China-Russia National Year and the China-Russia Year of Language, the China-Russia Tourism Year is bound to inject new vigor into cultural exchanges between the two peoples, "an essential part" of bilateral ties, Berger said.

To further expand youth and educational exchanges, the two sides also agreed to host the China-Russia Year of Youth Exchanges in 2014 and 2015 and increase the number of exchange students between the two countries.

This shows that the two sides are eager to enhance grass-root contacts whose influence is more direct and far-reaching so as to better promote mutual trust and understanding, experts said.

PARADIGM OF GREAT-POWER RELATIONS

Recognizing the "special nature" of their bilateral ties, China and Russia vowed to build a new type of great-power relations.

Delivering a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Saturday, Xi described the China-Russia relationship as "the most important one in the world and also the best one between major powers," adding that it serves as an important guarantee of international strategic balance.

Xi's words were echoed by Sergei Lousianin, deputy director of the Far East Institute, who called China-Russia ties a "stabilizer" to global peace and security.

China-Russia relationship is not a bloc, union or alliance, but a true partnership, Berger said.

During Xi's visit, the two countries discussed strategic cooperation and coordinated their positions on major regional and international issues.

Such cooperation is of great importance when the situation in the global hot spots such as the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula remains unstable, said the expert.

Mikhail Titarenko, chairman of the Russia-China Friendship Association, said close cooperation between China and Russia within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS helped with the reforms of global economic and political systems and ensured regional peace and security.

China and Russia, said Russian experts, speak in chorus but each with its own voice, with both appealing for common prosperity and development and opposing hegemonism and unilateralism.

The bilateral ties proceed from the deep understanding of their common interests instead of short-term egoistic benefits, they said, adding the future-oriented new paradigm of inter-power relationship will not only benefit the two countries and their peoples, but also facilitate the creation of a more prosperous world.