On April 15th, Zheng Xinye, Vice President of Renmin University of China (RUC), met with Elena Gorbashko, Vice-Rector of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, and her delegation during their visit to RUC.

Zheng Xinye reviewed the history and achievements of the cooperative exchanges between the two universities. He stated that Saint Petersburg State University of Economics is an important partner of RUC in Russia. Since establishing their partnership, the two universities have achieved fruitful results in areas such as student and faculty exchanges and co-hosting academic conferences.

As top universities in China and Russia, Zheng said, the two sides should focus on key global issues such as energy security and climate change in the future. He encouraged that two universities should coordinate talent cultivation and scientific research and rely on cooperation platforms such as the Science and Education Working Group of the "St. Petersburg Dialogue" Forum, the Education Council of the Chinese-Russian Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development, the China-Russia Alliance of Journalism Education Universities, and the Joint Research Institute on Russian Issues of Renmin University of China and Heilongjiang University to expand the scale of personnel exchanges, create brand academic activities, and push the cooperation between the two universities to a new height. Zheng emphasized that the two sides should also provide policy suggestions and solutions for the development of the two countries and help China and Russia demonstrate their responsibilities as major powers to the world.

Elena Gorbashko remarked that the two universities have highly complementary advantageous disciplines and a solid foundation for previous cooperation. She noted that the two universities shared common research interests in areas such as energy economics and economic planning and market regulation. She hopes to further deepen scientific research cooperation under the framework of the "21st Century Energy Forum," a regular forum hosted by Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, to inject new impetus into the cooperation between the two universities.

The meeting was also attended by Mariya Suchkova, Director of the Research Activities Support Center of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics; Ekaterina Antonova, Director of the Project Management Department of the Beijing Representative Office of Gazprom and Lecturer at the Department of Project Management and Quality Management of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics; and Andrey Azarin, Director of the Research Department of the Beijing Representative Office of Gazprom. Representatives from the Office of Research of RUC,   International Office of RUC, the School of Economics of RUC, and the Joint Research Institute on Russian Issues of Renmin University of China and Heilongjiang University also participated in the meeting.