BEIJING - A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official on Sunday hailed the cultural exchange between China and Italy when attending the opening ceremony of a cultural exhibition in Beijing.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, titled "Tota Italia: Origins of a Nation."

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Italian President Sergio Mattarella have respectively sent congratulatory letters to the exhibition.

Huang read President Xi's congratulatory letter at the opening ceremony. He noted that the letters from the two leaders fully showed their high attention to China-Italy cultural relationship, and provided important guidance for furthering culture and tourism exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

Huang said that with the strong support of the leaders of the two countries, China and Italy enjoy a high-level cultural relationship, which sets a fine example of cultural exchanges between China and Europe, as well as between the East and the West.

Huang expressed hope that both countries will take this as a platform and opportunity to always respect and learn from each other, respect and cherish each other's brilliant achievements of civilization, enhance cooperation in fields including museums, art galleries, and cultural digitization, and promote closer people-to-people ties.