Press Releases
Courtesy Call on State Minister for Foreign Affairs Odawara Kiyoshi by Mr. Jean-Eric Paquet,
Director-General of Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission
May 17, 2022
On May 17, Mr. ODAWARA Kiyoshi, State Minister for Foreign Affairs received a courtesy call from Mr. Jean-Eric PAQUET, Director-General of Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The overview is as follows.
- At the outset, State Minister Odawara extended a warm welcome to Director-General Paquet, whose visit was timely made just after the EU-Japan Summit on May 12 and stated that in the Summit Meeting, both sides committed to expanding cooperation between our industrial, science, research & innovation, and space sectors, and Japan would like to continue to cooperate in various fields with a view to further strengthening the Japan-EU relationships. In response, Mr. Paquet stated that bilateral relationships have recently become closer and he welcomed the opening of exploratory talks on Japan's possible association to the Horizon Europe Research & Innovation Framework Programme.
- In addition, both sides exchanged views on the bilateral cooperation in science, technology and innovation and the annual meeting of the Science and Technology in Society Forum (the STS forum), and reaffirmed reinforcing mutual cooperation by making use of various opportunities including the Joint Committee of Cooperation in Science and Technology between Japan and the European Union.