Sino-Russian cooperation in culture and the arts is lagging behind political and economic cooperation, Sorokin said. He assured his audience that Russia's Foreign Ministry would by all means provide support for the forthcoming film forum.
The Amur Autumn film forum now has every right to claim international status, and it fits in well with the Russo-Chinese cooperation context, Konstantin Vnukov, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry's First Department of Asia, said at the same press conference.
In his view, the forum will create conditions for stepping up Russo-Chinese contacts at the interpersonal level. "Russia and China have excellent relations at the top and senior levels, but they lack interpersonal contacts," the diplomat said.
Vnukov reminded his audience that 2004 marks the 55th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China and 55 years since the PRC established diplomatic relations with Russia.
As a Chinese Embassy Counselor pointed out, bilateral relations have entered their best historical period. "Mutual trust is deepening and wide-ranging cooperation in economics, politics and culture is becoming broader," he said. In his view, the upcoming film forum is consistent with the relations of strategic partnership between Russia and China.
The Amur Autumn forum is due to open on September 17 in the city of Blagoveshchensk, in Russia's Far East, and a Chinese Film Week will be held there. A Russian Film Week will take place in Harbin, and a presentation of the forum will be held at the Russian Embassy in Beijing.
