On November 30, DCM & Minister Xu Xueyuan attended the economic and trade parallel activity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Maryland-Anhui sister province and state relationship and the signing ceremony of framework agreement on horse industry cooperation and delivered remarks. A total of over 30 participants joined the event, including Director General of Anhui Provincial Foreign Affairs Office Yong Chenghan and Maryland Secretary of State John C. Wobensmith.

In her remarks, Minister Xu spoke highly of the fruitful results that Maryland-Anhui sister province and state relationship has registered. She said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. in 1979, 50 pairs of sister provinces/states and 233 pairs of sister cities have been established, which have greatly enhanced our mutual understanding and trust, and also strongly promoted cooperation in various fields. In particular, when China-U.S. relations are going through an unprecedented “cold snap”, sub-national exchanges and cooperation have acted as an anchor and propeller of our bilateral relationship. She hoped that Maryland and Anhui will strengthen exchanges and cooperation for more achievements in economy, trade, infrastructure construction, health care, education, and tourism in the future, so as to bring more tangible benefits to our two peoples.

Representatives from Maryland and Anhui expressed their strong desire to strengthen dialogue and exchanges between the two sides as well as promote sub-national cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. They all agreed that the horse industry cooperation has great potential to explore, and the two sides should take the signing event as an opportunity to deepen and substantiate the cooperation, so as to bring more benefits to our two peoples.