On November 26, 2018, Zhang Jianguo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs led a delegation to Brussels, Belgium. He met with Mr. Risto Artjoki, Head of the Cabinet of Vice President Jyrki Tapani Katainen of the European Commission, Ms. Josefine Loriz-Hoffmann, Director at DG AGRI of the European Commission, and Ms. Maria Joao Botelho, President of ELARD and other experts. They exchanged views on further strengthening China-EU cooperation in STI and international talent exchange in the field of rural development, as well as on deepening cooperation with ELARD under the framework of rural development policy support between China and the EU. The two sides reached consensus on how to strengthen and steadily push forward cooperation in promoting the experience of the Leaders project in the rural development and construction in China and Europe.
Present at the meeting were He Defang, Director-General of the Department of Policy, Regulation and Innovation System of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Wang Yan, Minister Counsellor for Science and Technology of the Chinese Mission to the European Union.