Chinese and Finnish presidents meet winter sports athletes

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto meet with figure skaters representing both China and Finland on Wednesday evening. [Photo: Xinhua]

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto met with figure skaters representing both China and Finland on Wednesday evening during Xi's state visit to the Nordic country. Both countries pledge to enhance cooperation in winter sports.

The Chinese figure skaters present signed sportswear to the two leaders.  [Photo: Xinhua]

The Chinese figure skaters presented signed sportswear to the two leaders as a symbol of everlasting friendship between the two countries. President Xi commented on the signatures saying, "there might be lot of names of world champions here in the future." 

President Xi receives the signed sportswear. [Photo: Xinhua]

The athletes had just finished competing in the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships, which ran from March 29 to April 2 in Helsinki, Finland.