Chinese and Russian: Cementing ties with language

As the first country to launch Chinese language education in Baltic Sea region, Latvia has held "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency competition for 13 consecutive years.

Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, or the three Baltic countries, have held the "Chinese Culture Festival" from February to August last year.

China and Latvia also signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a Chinese Culture Center in Riga, capital of Latvia, in January.

"Our new generation will see China outrun the US in terms of all main economic indicators. Therefore it is worth learning Chinese and getting to know about the culture of this country, said Pēteris Pildegovičs, Latvian Director of Confucius Institute at the University of Latvia.

Intonation plays a role in the formation of meaning in Chinese, and learning Chinese comes natural to Latvians since the Latvian language works the same way, said Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head of Confucius Centre at Riga Pauls Stradiņš University.

Latvian students celebrate the 5th Anniversary of Confucius Institute in Riga, Latvia, on September 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 2016 "China-CEE Countries Exchange Year" was launched in Beijing on February 26. The Exchange Year includes 40 events in a dozen of fields such as painting, performance, seminars, and tourist show. People-to-people exchange, political dialogue, and trade cooperation are the three pillars of the cooperation between China and the CEE countries, and Latvia will enforce the coordination with China in culture, media, education, science and technology, and think tank, said state affairs secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Latvia.