President Pavlopoulos welcomes plans for Greek Studies chair at Tsinghua University in Beijing

Receiving them, Pavlopoulos noted that the strongest bonds linking Greece and China were not economic but the result of cooperation between two very ancient cultures. He underlined his satisfaction that one of China's biggest universities was establishing the “Marilena Laskaridis Chair for Greek Classical and Modern studies” to promote the study of the Greek language and Greek philosophy.

The chair will be set up as part of an overall initiative launched by the the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation and Tsinghua University called the Tsinghua-Laskaridis Culture Project. This seeks to support the work of outstanding Chinese and Greek scholars by assisting and promoting Greek Classical and Modern studies, Sino-Hellenic relations and work by Chinese Students and scholars in China and Greece.

The Project will involve academic work and exchanges of Greek and Chinese students and scholars between Greece and China in a number of different activities. It will be part of the Research Center for China-EU Relations at the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University.

The signing of the agreement for the Project took place during a private event at the premises of the “Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation” on Tuesday in Athens. It is envisaged to have a duration of five years and, if things go well, may lead to a Centre of Classical Studies.