China's Ambassador, Kazakh Culture Minister debated cultural exchange issues

Both sides exchanged views on further deepening the cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Kazakhstan. Vice Minister of Culture and Information Askar Buribayev of Kazakhstan, Ermek Amanshaev, President of Shaken Aimanov Kazakhfilm JSC and others were present, the press service of China's Foreign Ministry said. Ambassador Le expressed that cultural cooperation between China and Kazakhstan has been steadily furthered in recent years with remarkable results. Under the frameworks of Agreement on Cultural Cooperation Between China and Kazakhstan and Humanities Sub-committee of China-Kazakhstan Cooperation Committee, a series of large-scale cultural exchange activities were held, evoking enthusiastic response and enhancing the mutual understanding and cognition of the two peoples. Last year, President Xi Jinping raised the initiative of joint building of the "Silk Road Economic Belt" during his visit to Kazakhstan. One of the important points is to facilitate people to people exchanges, and cultural exchanges are the very channel to connect the two peoples. Ambassador Le thanked the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan and Minister Arystanbek Muhamediuly himself for the great support for cultural exchanges between China and Kazakhstan and hopes that the two sides will constantly strengthen relevant cooperation and earnestly build a bridge of understanding and trust between China and Kazakhstan. Minister Arystanbek Muhamediuly said that he accompanied President Nazarbayev to visit China during the just concluded Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai. During the trip, he genuinely felt the high level of Kazakhstan-China relations as well as the solid friendship between the two heads of state. Chinese culture enjoys a long history and Chinese wisdom is profound. As Minister of Culture and Information, he will, as always, support cultural exchanges and cooperation between Kazakhstan and China. Last year Kazakh Culture Day was successfully held in China, gaining full support from the Chinese side. Chinese Culture Day will be held in Kazakhstan this September and the Kazakh side will give all-round coordination and assistance as well. He believed that Chinese Culture Day will provide Kazakh people with a wonderful feast of culture and also open a magnificent chapter in the Kazakhstan-China relations. The two sides also discussed a series of specific issues about conducting cultural cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the near future.