This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of sister city relationship between Beijing and Moscow. To promote exchanges with Russia, especially pragmatic cooperation with its capital Moscow, the Foreign Affairs Office of the Beijing Municipal Government held a video conference on June 18 with the Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations of Moscow City Government to discuss the two cities' cooperation in the second half of the year. The conference was attended by Yin Fei, Level-1 Counsellor at Foreign Affairs Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, and Ilya Kuzmin, Deputy Head of Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations of Moscow City Government.

Yin Fei said that since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the two countries have helped each other and overcome the difficulties together. The capitals of the two countries have also supported each other through the exchange of correspondence, provision of donations and supplies, and experience sharing via video conferences. Working together to fight the pandemic has cemented the friendship between the two cities, which is a vivid manifestation of the deepening cooperation between China and Russia. In the context of regular outbreak control and considering the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the two cities' sister city relationship and the China-Russia Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation, Beijing and Moscow should use online platforms to advance their pragmatic cooperation in such fields as technological innovation, investment and trade, urban planning and management, and culture. This will help the two cities fully resume business activities, build a technological innovation center with global influence, keep increase their governance capacity, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

Ilya Kuzmin said that during the outbreak China sent a team of medical experts to Russia and provided strong support for Russia's procurement of medical equipment in China, setting a good example of cooperation between major countries against COVID-19. The pandemic can block the flow of personnel, but not exchange of ideas between the two sides. Moscow thanks Beijing for its initiative to hold the video conference. Kuzmin believes that the 25th anniversary presents an important opportunity for the two cities, and fully agrees about the constructive cooperation proposals put forward by Beijing. For the second half of this year, Moscow plans to hold an online conference together with Beijing for start-ups to attract investments. It will also organize online summer camps for primary and middle school students in the two cities, online cultural tourism exchanges and other activities to bring the sister city relationship between the two cities to a new level. It is also expected that the two cities will work together to tide over the hard time and achieve the exchange of visits as soon as possible.