Confucius Institute in Ukraine awarded for promoting Ukraine-China ties

KIEV, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Confucius Institute of the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University (KNU) on Monday was awarded the Order of Glory, a Ukrainian award recognizing individuals and organizations actively involved in promoting Ukrainian ties with other countries.

The Confucius Institute of the KNU won the prize for its "significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian-Chinese cooperation in the field of education, science and culture."

Sun Kewen, the Chinese director of the KNU Confucius Institute, received the award during a ceremony in Kiev from Pavel Kochubinsky, the president of the All-Ukrainian Foundation for International Communication, known as the "Ukrainian People's Embassy", under the patronage of Kraine's first president Leonid Kravchuk.

"On behalf of the first Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, I want to present the Order of Glory to the Confucius Institute of the KNU for its outstanding achievements in raising the level of cultural and scientific cooperation" between Ukraine and China, Kochubinsky told the ceremony.

For his part, Sun said it is an honor for the Confucius Institute of the KNU to receive such an award.

"In 2007, we signed an agreement on the creation of the Confucius Institute at the KNU. For these 10 years, we have trained about 10,000 people. The award that we have received today is recognition and acknowledgement of our merits," Sun said.

The Confucius Institute at the KNU was the second Confucius Institute set up in Ukraine.

Kravchuk was elected the first president of Ukraine after the country gained independence from the former Soviet Union via a referendum in December 1991, and served until July 19, 1994. Enditem