The 2023 online exchange program for young people from friendly provinces and cities in China and from neighboring Mongolia and Russia was held on June 14.

Baotou city publicity department head, Sun Guoming, delivered a speech at the program launch and the unveiling ceremony for the new International Youth Exchange Center that is based in the metropolis – located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Sun said that the online exchange program was an effective measure for Baotou to help implement the important consensus – for "enhancing culture and people-to-people exchanges, especially among young people" – reached by the leaders of China, Mongolia and Russia.

It was also an important platform for enhancing mutual understanding and solidifying friendship, he said.

He called on the education departments and schools of the three countries to accelerate the establishment of a good cooperation mechanism and to continuously open up new paths for educational exchanges and cooperation.

Sun hoped that young people would hold lofty ideals and a sense of purpose – and become inheritors of the traditional friendship between China, Mongolia and Russia.

He also called on them to be promoters of friendly cooperation and builders of a friendly future – making more contributions to promoting mutually beneficial cooperation and common development among the trio of neighboring nations.

During the program launch, Baotou's education department and a raft of local schools signed friendly exchange agreements with education departments and schools in provinces and cities in Mongolia and Russia.