On May 19^th 2023, Prof. Dou Xiankang, President of the National Natural Science Foundation (hereinafter referred to as NSFC), met with Mr. Keith Tanti, Parliamentary Secretary for Youths, Research and Innovation of the Republic of Malta.

In his remarks, President Dou introduced NSFC’s work with a special focus on science and technology cooperation. He pointed out that NSFC, as the main funding channel for basic research in China, attaches great importance to cooperation with Europe, with a series of remarkable achievements made in relevant fields. For example, the China-EU High-level Dialogue Mechanism has been deepened, and bilateral and multilateral cooperation has been enhanced both in terms of scope and depth. He expressed the hope that under the framework of the Sino-Malta Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation, the two sides could explore the possibility of bilateral cooperation in the training of early-career researchers and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and on this basis further contributing to basic science cooperation in an all-round way.

Mr. Tanti spoke highly of the role of NSFC in promoting international cooperation and proposed that the two sides could establish cooperative relations and jointly support the cooperation in basic research areas of mutual interest soon.

Mr. Lan Yujie, Vice President of NSFC, Mr. Zou Liyao, Director General of the Bureau of International Cooperation, and Mr. John Busuttil, Ambassador of the Republic of Malta to China and other officials attended the meeting.