In accordance with the requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Organization on Science and Technology Cooperation and subject to the coordination and agreement by both sides, the Ministry of Science and Technology (“MOST”) and the ITER Organization held their 2016 Annual Conference on Bilateral Cooperation at the ITER Headquarters in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France from January 11 to 12, 2017. The Chinese side dispatched a delegation headed by Deputy Director General Sun Jian from the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center (“ITER CNDA”), and formed by Li Jing from the General Office, Yang Xuemei from the Department of International Cooperation, Xiao Lichun from the Department of Personnel and Ren Jiarong from the Department of Basic Research of MOST, and Zhu Yalan from ITER CNDA.

During the meeting, the Chinese delegation respectively held bilateral talks with Director-General Bernard Bigot, Director of Human Resources Mr. Eric Welch, Head of Communication Mr. Laban Coblentz and Head of External Relations & Action Plan Implementation Office Mr. Jin Ju. The main purposes of the talks were to strengthen dialogues and coordination between MOST and the Office of the Director-General of the ITER Organization, promote MOST-ITER cooperation in the areas of project management, project construction and procurement package agreement execution, recommend and dispatch through various channels more Chinese personnel to go to the ITER Organization for learning and exchanges, and jointly push for the implementation of the ITER Project and the completion of various tasks in the construction stage.

During this visit, the Chinese delegation especially held talks with representatives of the Chinese employees at the ITER Organization. On behalf of the Chinese administrative department for the ITER Project, the visiting delegation brought to all the Chinese employees best wishes for the upcoming Spring Festival and exchanged views on issues of concern to the Chinese employees. After the meeting, the delegation was invited to visit the construction site, polar field coil manufacturing workshop, low-temperature system plant and Tokamak plant site of the ITER location.