On July 13, Prof. Mengshan, Secretary of the Leading Party Group of CAAS met with Mr. Otari Danelia, Agricultural Minister of the Republic of Georgia at CAAS headquarter in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening agricultural science and technology cooperation within the framework of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. Vice President Wu Kongming attended the meeting. Chen noted that CAAS and Georgian Academy of Agricultural Sciences have enjoyed solid basis for cooperation, and two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the areas of germplasm exchange, plant protection, protected agriculture, biotechnology, integrated pest management, animal husbandry and veterinary science in July 2009. In May of this year, Chinese Agricultural Minister Han Changfu’s visited Georgia, and two sides agree to include agricultural science and technology, food processing, organic farming and crop cultivation into the priorities of the “China-Georgia Working Group on Agricultural Cooperation”. There exist great potentials for the cooperation on Agricultural Science and Technology in the construction of Silk Road Economic Belt, because Georgia has the geographical location as the gateway liking Europe and Asia continents. In order to promote pragmatic cooperation between the two sides, Chen suggested the two sides strengthen collaborative researches in areas of grape, tea, horticulture, livestock and veterinary, and intensify scientific exchange especially for young talents, jointly hold the symposiums/workshops in mutually interested areas.

Danelia said, Georgia used to benefit from introducing tea and tea cultivation technologies from China, and now Georgia values the chance brought by the Silk Road Economic Belt Construction. He has listed 21 priorities projects for collaboration, and hope that the two sides will continue to identify key areas of cooperation, explore cooperative modes and materialize the cooperation.

After the meeting, the delegation visited the Key Facilities for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement and the National Agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Park.