NYU President Andrew Hamilton (L)?awards Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong the New York University Medal of Honor, the university's highest honor,at a ceremony at the university on Monday. ZHANG RUINAN / CHINA DAILY

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong was awarded the New York University Medal of Honor on Monday.

The university's highest honor was bestowed by NYU President Andrew Hamilton at a ceremony at the university.

"I keenly feel that cultural and people-to-people exchange as a foundation of Sino-US relations deserves great attention and requires long-term investment," Liu said, adding that she has witnessed and participated in exchanges between China and the US for nearly 10 years.

Liu is visiting the States to kick start the first round of the China-US Social and Cultural Dialogue, to be held in Washington on Sept 28. Liu and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will co-chair the dialogue.

Liu said that cooperationin education between the two countries not only has mutual benefits but also helps shape the future.

In recent years, cooperation between NYU and the China side has been fruitful, Liu said.

Liu said she hopes NYU could work with more than 7,000 colleges and universities in the two countries to continuously improve the level of cooperation, making a greater contribution to deepen Sino-US cultural and people-to-people exchange, and enhance the friendship between people of the two countries, especially young people.

Liu believes Sino-US cultural and people-to-people exchanges can move to a higher level as long as the two sides continue to work together and look beyond.

As Liu said, China and the US will exchange in-depth views on people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. China is willing to work with the US to achieve positive results from the dialogue.

China and the US have agreed to establish four high-level dialogue mechanisms on diplomacy and security, the economy, social and cultural issues, and law enforcement and cyber security, according to the consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump during their meeting in April at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The first round of the diplomatic and security dialogue, as well as the economic dialogue took place in June and July separately.