Mr. Liu Peng, Minister of the General Administration of Sport of China and Chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, visited Norway from 4^th October to 6^th October, 2009 at the invitation of Mr. Trond Giske, Norwegian Minister of Culture and Church Affairs. The two ministers held talks and signed the "Memorandum of Understanding between the General Administration of Sport of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs of Norway on Bilateral Cooperation in the Field of Sport". Ambassador Tang Guoqiang attended the talks and the signing ceremony. The Chinese delegation also had discussions with members of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Norwegian Confederation of Sport and visited the Norwegian Olympic Training Center.

Minister Liu Peng said that broad-ranging sport exchanges between China and Norway, in recent years, have produced fruitful results. The signing of the memorandum is a symbol of continuous deepening of the development and cooperation in the sport field between the two countries.

Minister Trond Giske said that he was pleased and satisfied with the achievement in the Sino-Norwegian sport exchanges, and he also emphasized that there were broad prospects for further cooperation in the sport field between the two countries. He said that he was deeply impressed by the successful Beijing Olympic Games. Minister Liu Peng expressed his gratitude to the Norwegian government, the Norwegian sport communities and the Norwegian International Olympic Committee members for their supports to the Beijing Olympic Games. He noted that the two sides should make greater efforts to learn from each other in the future.