Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan pledged
on Wednesday to expand cooperation and enhance people-to-people
contact in a bid to further bilateral ties.
The two mayors hailed traditional friendship and existing
cooperative relations between the two sister cities, as well as the
"Week of Moscow" and "Week of Beijing" theme events.
The "Week of Beijing" will start in Moscow this week and the
reciprocal "Week of Moscow" was held in Beijing last year, as part
of the "Year of Russia" in China.
The theme events will involve exhibitions on Beijing Olympics,
trade and economic programs, tourism projects and cultural
performance as well.
The Moscow City Duma confirmed a fifth term for Luzhkov as the
mayor of Moscow on Wednesday, keeping the 70-year-old man in the
post since 1992.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2007)
