On March 12, 2007, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui met in the office building of the Foreign Ministry with a visiting Russian press delegation.

Li said currently the Sino-Russian relationship has reached its best level in history. Since the establishment of their strategic cooperative partnership a decade ago, the two countries have continuously built up their mutual political trust, deepened pragmatic cooperation in the economic and trade areas, and expanded humanities cooperation. They have also unswervingly supported each other on important issues involving the two countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity and maintained fruitful communication and coordination on international issues, added Li.

Li said the "Year of Russia" activities were successfully held in China last year, which has strongly pushed for in-depth development of bilateral ties. He believed that with the joint efforts of both sides, the "Year of China" activities to be held in Russia this year will surely help push bilateral ties to a new level.

Li spoke highly of the great efforts the Russian press circle has made to promote bilateral ties and to help the two peoples better understand each other, expressing welcome for the Russian press delegation's reporting tour which coincides with the "Year of China". Li hoped that the Russian journalists, during their stay in China, will learn more about the Asian country and make new contributions to Sino-Russian friendly ties.

The Russian journalists said the Russian media are ready to offer objective and comprehensive reports on China and make unremitting efforts to build up mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

The delegation, whose members are from ITAR-TASS, Interfax, Russian Information Agency (RIA), the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK), Voice of Russia (VOR)and Russiskaya Gazeta as well as media in Far East of Russia, is visiting China at the invitation of the Information Department of the Foreign Ministry of China. Besides Beijing, they will also visit Shanghai.