EU and Japan to launch partnership negotiations

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, and Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, will meet Japanese Prime Minister Abe for the 21st summit between the European Union and Japan, in Tokyo on Monday, March 25. \"The summit will open an important new phase in EU-Japan relations through the launching of negotiations for a partnership agreement aimed at developing dialogue and cooperation across a wide range of political and global issues, as well as for a free trade agreement,\" noted an EU statement here Thursday. Global issues on the agenda of the EU-Japan summit include the Iranian nuclear programme, the situation in the Korean peninsula, Syria, and the Sahel/Mali. \"Since the first EU-Japan summit in 1991, EU-Japan relations have expanded and diversified considerably. A stronger partnership between the EU and Japan can make a real difference, at regional and global level, in building peace and security, upholding the multilateral rules based system, and promoting economic prosperity,\" said Van Rompuy in a press statement. Japan is the EU\'s seventh largest export market and EU exports to Japan reached 49 billion euro in 2011, while EU imports from Japan stood at 69 billion euro.