Page 8 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

THE TRENDS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT

evergreen.
China and Russia both have long histories and magnificent cultures.
Cultural and people-to-people exchanges between our countries play an
irreplaceable role in advancing the friendship between our two peoples.
Ancient Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Laozi are familiar to
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the Russian people while Russian culture left a deep mark on the older
generations of Chinese revolutionaries. People of my own generation
have also read many of the Russian literary classics. When I was young,
I read the works of literary maestros like Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev,
Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, giving me a feel for the charm of
Russian literature. Sino-Russian cultural exchanges rest on truly deep
foundations.
The young are the future of our countries, of our world, and also
of Sino-Russian friendship. During this visit, President Putin and I
jointly announced that in 2014 and 2015, China and Russia will host the
Youth Friendly Exchange Year. On the Chinese side, we will also invite a
delegation of Russian university students, including students of Moscow
State Institute of International Relations, to visit China. The students
sitting here today are some of the best and brightest of your country’s
younger generation. I hope that more and more young people from both
countries will take up the baton of Sino-Russian friendship and actively
get involved in the cause of friendship between our countries.

Faculty Members and Students,
As you say in Russia, “Big ships sail far.” China also has an ancient
poem that reads, “Someday, with my sail piercing the clouds; I will mount
the wind, break the waves, and traverse the vast, rolling sea.” I am
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certain that with the joint efforts of the governments and peoples of our
two countries, Sino-Russian relations will, come rain or shine, continue to
forge ahead, bringing greater benefits to our two peoples and doing more
to promote world peace and development.
Thank you.

Note
1 The Ten Thousand Li Tea Route was a tea trade route stretching 13,000 kilometers

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