Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng met with European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova on Mar. 29 during the latter’s visit to China to attend the sixth meeting of the China–EU High-Level Dialogue Mechanism on People-to-People Exchanges. The two sides exchanged views on promoting China–EU educational cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

Huai noted that, during the 24th China–EU Summit last December, President Xi Jinping and European leaders provided strategic guidance for enhancing China–EU relations and reached consensus on holding a new round of meetings under the High-Level Dialogue Mechanism on People-to-People Exchanges in 2024. As the Chinese Secretariat for the Mechanism, the Ministry of Education (MOE) made elaborate preparations for this meeting. The MOE hopes to work with European countries in areas such as student exchanges, green transformation, digital education, and STEM education, in order to increase mutual understanding and trust and reinforce the bilateral relationship between China and Europe.

Ivanova said that Europe gives high priority to China–EU people-to-people exchanges and is willing to jointly promote balance between the two sides in student exchange program participation as well as deepen pragmatic educational collaboration with China.