Chinese vice premier calls for more exchanges, cooperation between Chinese, German youth

Exchange and cooperation between Chinese and German youth should be further enhanced, said Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Sino-German Youth Exchange Year at the University of Hamburg on Thursday.

"Exchange among young people of both countries will provide an inexhaustible motive force for the further development of bilateral relations and create a better Sino-German future jointly," Liu said.

More youth messengers and friendship messengers need to be cultivated for Sino-German relations to make the Sino-German friendship tree more fruitful, she stressed.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who also attended the closing ceremony, said the German side supports strengthening cultural exchanges between the two countries and raising more young people as ambassadors to promote the Germany-China friendship.

Germany is willing to play an active role in promoting the development of EU-China relations, Steinmeier added.

The young people of China and Germany jointly performed at the ceremony, with the theme of "Exchange, Friendship and Future."