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On December 3 in the NA Gilded Hall the sitting of the NA Armenia-China Friendship Group was held, which moderated the RA NA Deputy Speaker, Head of Armenia-China Friendship Group Hermine Naghdalyan and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of PRC to Armenia Tian Erlong.

“The Armenian-Chinese Cooperation in the Humanitarian Sphere: Educational Initiatives” was discussed. The NA deputies, members of the RA Government, representatives of the Embassy of China to Armenia, participants of the Armenian-Chinese educational programmes and others took part in the sitting.

Welcoming the attendees in the National Assembly, Hermine Naghdalyan noted that during the sitting they would discuss the deepening of the Armenian-Chinese relations, particularly, issues on cooperation in the humanitarian sphere. She noted that we should make closer the mutually beneficial cooperation in all possible fields, particularly, in cultural, trade-economic, educational and humanitarian spheres and in this issue she highlighted the practical participation of the Embassy.

Ambassador Tian Erlong in his welcoming remarks on behalf of the Embassy expressed his gratitude to the NA Deputy Speaker, Head of Armenia-China Friendship Group Hermine Naghdalyan for the great contribution to strengthening of the Armenian-Chinese relations. She touched upon the Armenian and Chinese peoples’ cultural and historical commonalities, underlining that in the two countries they pay great attention to education. By Mr Erlong’s assessment, an important component of the bilateral cooperation is the interaction in the sphere of education which now actively develops: students’ exchange programmes are implemented, training lessons for Chinese teachers are organized, and the legal and legislative basis creates favourable conditions for the implementation of the joint programmes. In this context, the Ambassador emphasized the role of Confucius Institute. He has underlined that great interest is shown towards Armenian language and Armenian culture in China. According to Mr Erlong, at this moment the Armenian-Chinese cooperation turns into a new phase of development and the PRC Embassy to Armenia makes efforts for further strengthening those ties. In the development of bilateral relations he highly assessed the role of the NA Armenia-China Friendship Group and the women MPs’ contribution to that.

The RA Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Manassarian and the RA Deputy Minister of Education and Science Karine Harutyunyan in their speeches touched upon the Armenian-Chinese educational cooperation, particularly, the Bachelors and the Masters and post-graduate inter-state fellowship programmes, presented the main directions of cooperation in the spheres of education and science. They highlighted the activities of Confucius Institute in spreading the Chinese language and the Chinese culture in Armenia and informed that the Institute closely cooperates with different schools. It has been noted that schools with Chinese studies function in Armenia, and they have talked about establishing a Chinese biased senior school in our country, which will be a unique educational centre in the region. The speakers touched upon the issue of including the Chinese as a foreign language in the general schools of Armenia. They expressed hope that the cooperation existing between the two countries will further expand and deepen.

The Director of the Chinese side of Confucius Institute Meijuan has underlined that the goal of the Institute is the strengthening of the Armenian-Chinese relations and the study of the culture and the culture of China in Armenia, especially in the general schools. In this context he has noted that training courses for the directors and pupils of schools are carried out, educational visits are organized to China, Confucius Institute Scholarship programme is fulfilled, competitions of the Chinese language, festivals and conferences are held.

The Director of the Armenian side of Confucius Institute Gor Sargsyan in his turn also presented the main directions of the activities of the Institute and the events concerning the bilateral cooperation.

The RA NA deputy, the Chair of the Union of School-Centres Ruzanna Muradyan has noted that the Union has been cooperating with Confucius Institute for already one year and highlighted its continuity.

The directors of schools of Yerevan and marzes in their speeches presented the results of the visit to China and underlined that the training courses have been instructive and served as a basis for the implementation of the new programmes in studying Chinese and spreading Chinese culture. They expressed hope that such educational programmes will be continuous.

Summing up the results of the sitting, the NA Deputy Speaker, Head of Armenia-China Friendship Group Hermine Naghdalyan has noted that the Armenian-Chinese educational cooperation is effective and steps are necessary to be taken for implementing the programmes and providing new level of mutual cooperation.

At the end of the sitting an awarding ceremony was held. On December 1, 2015 the schoolchildren, who presented the best works in the competition of the paintings entitled “China in My Eyes” were handed over diplomas. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of PRC to Armenia Tian Erlong awarded the winners.