China is interested in developing Russian language as a school subject, Russia`s deputy Education Minister said on Wednesday.

Ivan Lobanov said China plans to send a group of school principals to Russia "to exchange methods of teaching Russian language."

"This is the result of successful negotiations by the Russian Education Ministry and the Russian Embassy in China," Lobanov said.

Russian was one of the main foreign languages taught in Chinese schools during the Soviet era, but was gradually replaced by English and other European languages in the 1980s and 1990s.
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