Ouyang Hua, vice president of Shanghai University, delivers a speech during the ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 3, 2019. Bogazici University in Istanbul and Shanghai University of China on Wednesday voiced readiness to cooperate more as they marked the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)
ISTANBUL, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Bogazici University in Istanbul and Shanghai University of China on Wednesday voiced readiness to cooperate more as they marked the 10th anniversary of joint program the Confucius Institute at Bogazici.
"From now on we want to carry on this long and good friendship between our universities ... we want to take it to the next stage," Mehmed Ozkan, rector of Bogazici University, said at the ceremony.
"We want to make it more successful and more comprehensive, covering other topics other than culture and language," he added.
Ouyang Hua, vice president of Shanghai University, spoke of the role played by the joint program in teaching Chinese language, facilitating academic cooperation and exchanges between the faculty and students as well as bilateral cultural exchanges.
"These efforts have promoted mutual understanding between the Turkish and Chinese people, as well as the friendship between Bogazici University and Shanghai University, between the city of Shanghai and the city of Istanbul," he said.
He voiced hope for the next-decade cooperation "to be better in our own ways."
The Confucius Institute has been founded now at four universities in Turkey.
Cui Wei, the Chinese consul general in Istanbul, mentioned the strategic cooperation between Turkey and China and what has been achieved under the Belt and Road Initiative over the years.
"We expect to achieve more in the upcoming ten years between Turkey and China, between Shanghai and Istanbul, and between the two universities," he said.
An exhibition featuring Shanghai-style culture in modern China was held on the occasion, plus a recital of passages from works of Orhan Pamuk and Mo Yan, the Turkish and Chinese writers awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a singing of Turkish and Chinese songs by Turkish students.
