On May 19 and 20, 2016, Mr. Sergejs Potakins, Congressman from the Concord Party of Latvia, Chairman of the Latvian- Chinese group of inter-parliamentary cooperation,  and his colleague visited SIIS escorted by Mr. Yang Guoqiang, former Chinese Ambassador to Latvia. President Prof. CHEN Dongxiao exchanged views with them. They also had a discussion with Prof. Li Xin, director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, and Prof. Qiang Xiaoyun, deputy director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies on EU-Russia cooperation, EU-China relations, and Latvia-China relations etc.