KIEV, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Editor-in-Chief of China's Xinhua News Agency He Ping and Oleksandr Kharchenko, director general of the Ukrainian national news agency Ukrinform, signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation here on Friday.

Both sides vowed to enhance cooperation in the fields of news exchange as well as new media and social media.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, He Ping congratulated the Ukrainian news agency on the 100th anniversary of its founding and spoke highly of the long-term friendly cooperation between Xinhua and Ukrinform, which was established 26 years ago.

"The signing of the new cooperation agreement more than 20 years after the start of our partnership will enable us to deepen collaboration on the existing basis. This is a new starting point for our cooperation," He Ping said.

Kharchenko said that Ukrinform attaches great importance to its friendly ties with Xinhua and stands ready to further strengthen partnership, in particular, under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

"We know that Xinhua News Agency is one of the leaders in the global information field in terms of size and professionalism ... We hope that this agreement will be a concrete step forward in the development of our relations," Kharchenko said.

Also on Friday, He Ping held talks with Ukrainian Information Policy Minister Yuriy Stets and visited Ukrainian international broadcasting TV channel UATV.

Invited by Ukrinform, He Ping arrived in Kiev on Thursday for a three-day visit. Enditem