President of the House Education Committee, Pavlos Mylonas, and the President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Gao Xiang, referred on Monday during a meeting in Parliament, in Nicosia, to the cooperation between Cyprus and China in the field of culture and education, and the promotion of dialogue between cultures.
The House Education and Culture Committee had a meeting with the President and Members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Welcoming the Chinese delegation, Mylonas referred to the cooperation between Cyprus and China and said, among other things, that this was a good opportunity for Europeans, especially in Cyprus and Greece, to learn a wonderful culture such as the Chinese, but mainly for people to understand the common values of humanity and democracy.
He also thanked China for its long-standing principled stance on the Cyprus issue.
Xiang, said, through a translator, that their trip to Cyprus was a dialogue of cultures, and he referred to the great history and rich culture of the two countries.
He said that China and Cyprus place importance on cultural exchanges, and referred to the Cultural Cooperation Agreement between the two countries signed in 1980, and the 2012 Agreement between the Ministries of Education of the two countries on cooperation in higher education.
Xiang also mentioned that there were currently two Confucius Institutes in Cyprus, which opens a bigger window as regards communication of cultures, he said.
He also noted that in 2019, the Academy and the European University of Cyprus signed a memorandum of cooperation while, during this visit to Cyprus, the CASS will sign with the same university an agreement to establish a Chinese research centre at the university, to deepen exchanges.
Xiang invited Mylonas and the Committee to Beijing.
After the meeting, Mylonas told CNA that it was important to continue cooperation with China, which, as he said, was an enormous country, from which Cyprus can learn many things. He referred to the need to learn the Chinese culture, but also to see their practices as regards primary and secondary education.
Source: Cyprus News Agency