Multi-faceted connection

Ding Zhitao, Deputy Editor in Chief of the Foreign Languages Press, said at the forum that in the process of jointly advancing Belt and Road cooperation, different forms of people-to-people exchange between countries and regions continue to deepen and present a colorful vision.

She said book translation and publication, as important carriers and manifestation of cultural exchange, play an irreplaceable and fundamental role in and has a lasting impact on promoting cultural interaction, mutual understanding and people-to-people connectivity among BRI countries.

Chen Yuanting, Secretary General of the Mexico Research Center at the Latin America Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, emphasized the pioneering role think tanks play in boosting dialogue and cultural exchange between the two countries. “In the future, a mechanism across multiple channels and tiers should be created to involve more think tanks in mutual learning,” she said.

Over the past decade, telling the stories of Belt and Road cooperation and promoting common development and prosperity have become a shared responsibility among the media organizations of partner countries, CGTN Spanish anchor Deng Ying told the forum. “Media exchange and cooperation have also enhanced mutual understanding among nations and deepened friendship and mutual trust,” she said.

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José Luis Uribe, President of Club Primera Plana, Mexico’s oldest media organization, echoed Deng’s remarks, saying the BRI Journalists Cooperation Platform has been nurturing collaboration since its establishment in 2018. The platform aims to lift mutual understanding and friendship among journalists from more than 100 countries.

“When I was teaching at university, I exchanged ideas with my students and explained to them the position and importance of China in the contemporary world. Now, in my retirement, I persist in spreading and defending the idea that the world is progressing and the future is bright,” Nicanor Ramirez, a Mexican reader of China Hoy, the Spanish-language monthly magazine published by the CICG Center for Americas, for 50-plus years, told the forum.