On May 10, the plaque unveiling ceremony of a Confucius Classroom at the Slovak University of Agriculture was held at the Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing. Zhao Guocheng, Deputy Chief Executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters, Robert Redhammer, Rector of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Peter Bielik, Rector of the Slovak University of Agriculture, Hu Wenping, Vice President of Tianjin University, among others, attended the unveiling ceremony.

The Confucius Institute in Bratislava (CIB) was founded in 2007 based on an agreement between Tianjin University and the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, with support of Chinese Governmental organization Hanban. Other partners, who were at the foundation of the Institute facilitated the teaching of Chinese by CIB, including the University of Economics in Bratislava, the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. Since September 2014, the Slovak University of Agriculture has offered credit courses to students of the CIB. It also offers courses in Chinese culture including HSK tutorials, paper-cutting and calligraphy. In September 2017, this was upgraded to a Confucius Classroom under the Confucius Institute in Bratislava with the approval of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and was the only Confucius Classroom in central and eastern Europe approved by the Confucius Institute headquarters in 2017.

The ceremony was presided over by Cao Diefeng, Director of the Development Planning Department of the Confucius Institute Headquarters. Zhao Guocheng awarded the Confucius Classroom plaque to the Slovak University of Agriculture. The two sides held talks before the ceremony. Zhao Guocheng thought highly of the achievements of Bratislava Confucius Institute. He hoped that the Confucius Classroom in the Slovak University of Agriculture will explore ways to strengthen cooperation in agriculture, science and technology and other fields based on the Confucius Institute in Bratislava. At the same time, he suggested that the Confucius class combine Chinese teaching with professional education to cultivate professional interdisciplinary talent, which can make great contributions to promote the friendly relations between the two countries.

Robert Redhammer said more effort would be made to further deepen the cooperation and exchanges between the two countries in a wider range of areas with the Confucius Institute as a platform.

Hu Wenping said that with the support of the Headquarters, Tianjin University, the Slovak University of Technology, and the Slovak University of Agriculture would further expand the role of cultural exchange platform of Confucius Institute and deepen the project of “China and the Central European science and technology innovation alliance of Universities” to establish closer cooperative partnerships and promote the Belt and Road Initiative.