BEIJING, Aug. 19 -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Tuesday met with a group of 198 Tajik students, asking them to help promote understanding and friendship between the two countries.

The ten-day China trip of the Tajik students, who study in primary or middle schools, is a substantial step in implementing the initiative made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last year.

China will host summer camps for 2,000 students from SCO countries in the next five years, Li said in his address to the 12th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent last November.

Liu reviewed robust cooperation and close people-to-people exchanges between China and Tajikistan and encouraged young people in the two countries to work for bilateral friendship.

Before their arrival in Beijing on Monday, the students visited Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the coastal city of Tianjin.