SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday left the Russian resort city Sochi for Beijing after attending the opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games.
It was the first attendance by a Chinese head of state at an opening ceremony of a major sports event held overseas.
Xing Guangcheng, director of the Center for China's Borderland History and Geography Studies, said Xi's attendance demonstrated China's strong support to the Olympics.
It is a diplomatic innovation, showing China's stronger "soft power" and its willingness to further interact with the outside world, said Xing.
Russia, for the second time, became Xi's first foreign destination of a year. Last March, he made a state visit to Russia just over a week after taking office as president.
Xi met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Sochi on Thursday, their first this year.
Calling China and Russia good neighbors, good partners and good friends, Xi, during his talks with Putin, said he came to Russia to offer his congratulations in person as is customary for the Chinese people to do upon their neighbors' joyous occasions.
Xing said that these simple but sincere remarks highlighted the high level and uniqueness of China-Russia ties and showed that China is paying great attention to developing ties with its strategic partners and neighboring countries.
During their talks, the two leaders reviewed the important achievements in China-Russia ties in the past year, made strategic plans for the bilateral cooperation in the new year and reached important consensuses on the strategic coordination on major international and regional issues.
Xi called on the two countries to continue to tap their huge potentials, nurture new growth points in cooperation and smoothly push forward the cooperation in large strategic projects.
Russia responds actively to China's proposals of building the Silk Road economic belt and a maritime silk road, Putin said.
Putin said the Nazi forces' aggression toward European countries including the Soviet Union, and the serious crimes committed by the Japanese imperialist military in China and other Asian countries can not be forgotten, adding that Russia is willing to make joint efforts with China to hold commemorative activities.
Xi and Putin jointly held a video talk with captains of Chinese and Russian naval vessels escorting the shipments of Syrian chemical weapons.
"The talks between Xi and Putin illustrate that China and Russia always firmly support each other on important issues," said Li Jianmin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, adding that the talks have well planned the development of bilateral ties in the future.
Xi also met with his country's delegation to the 22nd Winter Olympic Games and gave a boost to the athletes' morale on Friday, prior to the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
During his stay in Sochi, Xi attended a reception held by the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, and held bilateral talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Czech President Milos Zeman, Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
He also gave an interview to a Russian TV channel in Sochi on Friday on such topics as the Sochi Olympics, China-Russia ties, China's reform and development, and his governing philosophy.
"Xi's Sochi visit is a complete success, and a good start for China's diplomacy in 2014," Li said.
