On March 4th, Luo Shugang, minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, met with French Ambassador to China Jean-Maurice Ripert. They exchanged views on enhancing communications and cooperation between two countries in culture and tourism.
Luo said that France is the first western country that established the diplomatic relations and comprehensive strategic partnership with China. As major cultural and tourism countries in the world, both sides hold cultural year in each country, which starts cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. China is the largest source of tourists in France while France is the most popular EU member country among Chinese tourists. In recent years, China-France exchanges and cooperation in culture and tourism have been conducted to vigorously push forward the development of bilateral ties. It is hoped that both sides could take the 55 anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France as a good opportunity to further strengthen policy dialogues, promote cooperation between cultural and art institutions, enlarge tourism scale, thus continuously consolidating the public foundation for the development of China-France comprehensive strategic partnership.
Jean-Maurice Ripert agreed on above-mentioned points and was willing to work together with China to make a push for bilateral relations and further enhance traditional friendship between two peoples.