Cooperation between China and France in the education sector lays the foundation for a deeper bilateral relationship and people-to-people exchanges between the younger generations, according to Fernando Pedraza-Diaz, Vice President for International Relations at the University of La Rochelle in France. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Pedraza-Diaz highlighted the achievements of 30 years of extensive cooperation between his university and its Chinese partners. "We are one of the leading universities in France for Chinese language learning and research in sinology. In particular, we have developed extensive cooperation with China and now have 15 partner institutions. Every year, we train around 400 students in Chinese at the undergraduate, master's and even doctoral levels," he said. The partnership began to take shape three decades ago, and since then, the university has steadily expanded cooperation with various institutions in China. One of its closest partners today is Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), which co-runs its Confucius Institute with the University of La Rochelle. This joint effort provides strong support for teaching Chinese language and culture to undergraduates, high school students and professionals. "The number of students keeps growing, which is why we need to establish more partnerships and, in particular, consider more mobility. For example, next semester we plan to send 54 French students here to China, while receiving around 45. This is a strong demand because Chinese is not only very fashionable, but also an increasingly important lingua franca in France today," Pedraza-Diaz noted. "I think that we have established very strong cooperation with China because we understand each other, we understand the common interests shared by the two countries, including in terms of linguistic and cultural relations. So, we can fully trust our Chinese partners in selecting the students they send to La Rochelle, and they in turn trust the students we choose to send to China. As a result, we have built a very strong partnership, not only with our partners in China, but also through our graduates who received training at the University of La Rochelle and now serve as directors of Confucius Institutes in Europe. For example, the Confucius Institute in Luxembourg is headed by one of our former students," he continued. Pedraza-Diaz also reflected on his experiences visiting educational institutions in China over the last 14 year. "What I saw 14 years ago and what I see today show a country in constant evolution. Your hospitality has always been excellent, but now we also see impressive progress in language skills, in English, French, Spanish and more, which clearly shows how open China has become to the world,” he said. SHOTLIST: FILE: Paris, France - Date Unknown 1. Arc de Triomphe; 2. Eiffel Tower; La Rochelle, France - Recent 3. SOUNDBITE (French) Fernando Pedraza-Diaz, Vice President for International Relations, University of La Rochelle (partially overlaid with shots 4-6/ending with shots 7-11): "We are one of the leading universities in France for Chinese language learning and research in sinology. In particular, we have developed extensive cooperation with China and now have 15 partner institutions. Every year, we train around 400 students in Chinese at the undergraduate, master's and even doctoral levels. The number of students keeps growing, which is why we need to establish more partnerships and, in particular, consider more mobility. For example, next semester we plan to send 54 French students here to China, while receiving around 45. This is a strong demand because Chinese is not only very fashionable, but also an increasingly important lingua franca in France today. I think that we have established very strong cooperation with China because we understand each other, we understand the common interests shared by the two countries, including in terms of linguistic and cultural relations. So, we can fully trust our Chinese partners in selecting the students they send to La Rochelle, and they in turn trust the students we choose to send to China. As a result, we have built a very strong partnership, not only with our partners in China, but also through our graduates who received training at the University of La Rochelle and now serve as directors of Confucius Institutes in Europe. For example, the Confucius Institute in Luxembourg is headed by one of our former students. What I saw 14 years ago and what I see today show a country in constant evolution. Your hospitality has always been excellent, but now we also see impressive progress in language skills, in English, French, Spanish and more, which clearly shows how open China has become to the world."; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 4. Port of La Rochelle; 5. Various of Chinese students at University of La Rochelle; China - Date Unknown 6. Various of Fernando Pedraza-Diaz with Chinese partners; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] 7. Aerial shots of city views; 8. Plane flying; 9. Various of dancing humanoid robots, smart equipment; 10. Various of city views, traffic; 11. Aerial shots of port; 12. Aerial shots of city views, traffic. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]