Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday met in the Kremlin with a group of Chinese students from the quake-hit Sichuan province.
Medvedev expressed welcome to the special guests, who are in Russia for rehabilitation, and hoped that they will make friends with more Russian children.
Over 1,000 children from China's quake-affected provinces would come to Russia for rehabilitation in 2008, Medvedev said. "It demonstrates the strategic partnership between the two countries," he said.
The children had a wonderful time talking with the Russian president and telling him their feelings about Russia. Medvedev showed them around the Andrew Hall of the Kremlin and took photos with them.
The 50 students were recuperating in a rehabilitation center in southwest Russia's coastal city of Tuapse before coming to Moscow. They presented Medvedev with some Chinese calligraphy works as gifts and invited him to visit China after the reconstruction of their hometowns.
The children arrived in Moscow Tuesday evening and visited the Red Square, the Kremlin and some other resorts Wednesday morning. They are scheduled to leave Moscow for the children's care center in Tuapse later in the day.
At the invitation of Medvedev, a total of 184 children from Sichuan province arrived at the All-Russia Children's Care Center in Tuapse on July 19 for their three-week rehabilitation.
An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale hit southwestern China on May 12, leaving about 70,000 people dead, 374,000 injured and 18,000 missing.
Source:Xinhua
