Netherlands, Japan bolster economic & cyber security ties

Prime Minister Mark Rutte ended his trade visit to Japan with a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday evening. He flew back to the Netherlands after the meeting to attend the refugee summit between the European Union and African countries in Malta on Wednesday and Thursday. During their meeting, the two Prime Ministers closed a "strategic partnership" that will boost the prospective Dutch-Japanese economic and political cooperation, Rutte announced on his Facebook page. In the partnership the two countries underline the joint opportunities in helping each other in the fields of cyber security, agriculture and horticulture, with the Olympic and Paralympic games in Tokyo in 2020, and facing health- and pension challenges involved in an aging population. "70 years after World War II the Netherlands and Japan is working together today for peace, justice, security and democracy", Prime Minister Rutte wrote. "We also looked at this in the strategic partnership. For example, we join forces in striving to modernize the United Nations and in relief and peacekeeping operations." The Dutch trade mission to Japan has not ended yet. Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs and the Dutch delegation of 120 companies and research institutions still have a full program for Wednesday. According to Rutte, Dutch and Japanese companies have already closed a number of contracts.