Zhang Donggang, Party secretary of the Renmin University of China, addresses the inaugural ceremony of a cooperation and research center on civilization exchanges and mutual learning in Paris. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A cooperation and research center on civilization exchanges and mutual learning was set up in Paris on Tuesday, as part of efforts to inject new energies into higher education cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and France.

The center was jointly built by Renmin University of China and three French universities, namely Sorbonne University, KEDGE Business School and Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.

When addressing the inaugural ceremony, Zhang Donggang, Party secretary of the Renmin University of China, said establishing the center was an important move to implement common understandings of the two heads of state to promote high-level development between relations between China and France.

It was an effective means to boost local exchanges, education, and research cooperation between China and France, and between China and Europe, Zhang said.

The center also served as a model for enhancing cultural exchanges and mutual learning, and promoting the harmonious coexistence and common progress of different civilizations, he added.

Head of the KEDGE Business School, Alexandre de Navailles, hosted the inaugural ceremony and said the establishment of the center would build a long-term and effective cooperation mechanism to offer support and help in multiple forms to teachers and students and jointly explore new models of exchanges of civilizations.

He said he hoped to further advance cooperation programs to make greater contributions to deepening education cooperation between China and France.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Sorbonne University, Beatrice Perez, said the center would promote cooperation between the two countries in the fields of humanities and social sciences to a higher level and provide more possibilities for deepening cooperation between the two countries.

Sorbonne University was willing to work together with RUC to continue building bridges for communication between the East and the West, she added.

Calling education as a crucial part of cultural exchanges between the two countries, President Anne Fraisse of the UPVM3 said she believed the center would further advance the deep integration of teaching and research between the two universities.

It's believed that the center would cultivate promoters among exchange and dialogue of different civilizations as well as upholders of the diversity of civilizations, she said.

With its permanent secretariat at KEDGE Business School in Paris, the center was built with the support of the Sino-French Institute of Renmin University of China, which was the first Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution in China primarily focused on humanities and social sciences.