The 19th session of the China-Russia Committee on Humanities Cooperation was held in Beijing on Tuesday, co-chaired by Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan and Tatyana Golikova, deputy prime minister of Russia.

At the conference, government officials from both countries spoke about bilateral cooperation in education, culture, health, sports, films, media, tourism and youth, among others.

"China-Russia humanities cooperation has achieved fruitful results in recent years," Sun said. "It has deepened the friendship between the people, promoted the exchange of civilizations and made important contributions to enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia."

The year 2020 will mark the 69th anniversary since the two countries established diplomatic relations.

Sun said both sides should implement the declaration on everlasting friendship between Chinese and Russian youths announced in President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia in September, promote cooperation to achieve more substantial development, as well as deepen cooperation within the "China's Northeast-Russia's Far East" and "Yangtze River-Volga River" mechanisms for regional cooperation.

More non-governmental institutions and regional governments in the two countries should be drawn in to promote the development of China-Russia humanities exchange, Sun added.

Golikova said Russia-China relations have shown a strong momentum of development in recent years.

The two sides should continue to deepen the pragmatic cooperation in various fields of humanities, expand and enhance cultural exchanges and consolidate the foundations of bilateral ties.

In tandem with the conference, Sun and Golikova attended the launching ceremony of a China-Russia television arts cooperative alliance, in which a plan to exchange film and television productions was announced. They also unveiled a China-Russia humanities cooperation TV channel and witnessed the signing of nine cooperative agreements in the humanities field.