OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2009. The eighth plenary session of the Russian-Chinese Friendship, Peace and Development Committee took place in Beijing on November 18. The messages of greetings from President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao to its participants note the Committee’s significant contribution to broadening the social base of bilateral relations and to strengthening the traditions of friendship, good-neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation between the peoples of Russia and China.

Xi Jinping, Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, meeting with the session participants, stressed that the PRC leadership evaluated highly the activities of the Committee in the development of bilateral nongovernmental relations.

The results of the work over the two years since the previous session were summed up during the meetings of specialized subcommittees, the plenary session and a separate working meeting between the Russian and Chinese co-chairs of the Committee, ONEKSIM Group vice president L. V. Drachevsky and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Hua Jianmin respectively. The sides agreed to lay emphasis in the Committee’s activities in 2010 on the commemorative events for the 65th anniversary of the Victory over German fascism and Japanese militarism and on the realization of the large-scale project Year of the Russian Language in China.