Joint Statement EU - Japan Summit 2021

 EU-Japan Summit 2021

Joint Statement

Taking forward a flourishing partnership

1. We, the leaders of the European Union (EU) and Japan, convened to take forward our close and comprehensive partnership, grounded in common interests and shared values of freedom, respect for human rights, democracy, the rule of law, free and fair trade, effective multilateralism and the rules-based international order. Two years after the start of their implementation, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement and Strategic Partnership Agreement are strengthening our ability to bring tangible benefits to our citizens. Today the COVID-19 pandemic, the growing impacts of climate change and new security challenges in the Indo-Pacific and worldwide make our cooperation more necessary than ever.

2. We are joining forces to: (i) defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and build more resilient, inclusive, green and digital economies, (ii) facilitate trade between us, step up joint work on connectivity and development cooperation, and increase our research, innovation and industrial cooperation and (iii) deepen our collaboration in promoting international peace and security, democracy, human rights, gender equality and the rule of law. 

3. Working together through the United Nations (UN), G7, G20, the World Trade Organization (WTO), OECD, ASEM, ARF and other fora, we will continue to show leadership in responding to global challenges and accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. We are determined to uphold the rules-based international order with the UN at its core and to strengthen multilateral 

institutions to make them fit to deal with the realities of the 21st century. Based on the deep and lasting partnerships that we both enjoy with the United States, we are keen to strengthen our trilateral cooperation in support of our shared values and interests. 

Defeating the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting a resilient and sustainable recovery

4. Defeating the COVID-19 pandemic remains our highest priority. We view the vaccination process not as a race between countries but a race against time. Recognising extensive immunisation as a global public good, we support universal, equitable and affordable access to safe, effective and quality-assured COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatments, as well as the strengthening of health systems. To this end, we have made substantial contributions to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and its COVAX facility and are making efforts to expand production of vaccines and other COVID-19 health products across the world. We will also cooperate for the success of the COVAX AMC Summit on 2 June to be co-hosted by Japan and Gavi. We welcome the EU’s leading role as a supplier of vaccines globally, including to Japan. We will work towards the expansion of vaccine production and keeping supply chains open and we call for refraining from unnecessary export and travel restrictions. We will work also to restore visa waiver reciprocity. We support the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in a safe and secure manner this summer as a symbol of global unity in defeating COVID-19.

5. We will reinforce macro-economic coordination to support a robust and sustainable socioeconomic recovery. At the heart of our agenda for economic growth and recovery is a green and digital transformation that will increase productivity, create new decent and quality jobs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve our resilience, and protect people and planet as we aim for net zero by 2050.2

6. We will continue working together for a world that is more resilient and better prepared to respond to global health emergencies towards achieving universal health coverage. We will coordinate our efforts to support, reinforce and reform the World Health Organization (WHO) and engage in the discussions on an international treaty on pandemics within its framework. In this context, we welcome the outcomes of the G20 Global Health Summit in Rome on 21 May 2021 and look forward to the conclusions of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. We support an inclusive approach at the World Health Assembly so that the international community can benefit from all relevant experience of all partners in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage new public health guidance in consultation with national and relevant international organisations on international travel by sea or air, including cruise ships. We also seek to integrate the “One-Health” approach promoted by the WHO, FAO, OIE and UNEP into all relevant policy-making processes.

7. We recognise that climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are interconnected and existential threats to humanity that require urgent, decisive and coordinated global action. We are determined to create climate neutral and resilient, biodiversity-friendly, circular and resource efficient economies, fully implement the Paris Agreement, and achieve growth. We will implement our enhanced 2030 emissions reduction targets/Nationally 

Determined Contributions fully aligned with our shared ambition of reaching net-zero 

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050. To accelerate climate and environmental action, we are launching the Japan-EU Green Alliance. Through this Alliance, we will deepen cooperation on energy transition, environmental protection, regulatory and business cooperation, research and development, sustainable finance and facilitating transition in third countries. 

8. We will work together and with others to achieve: the most ambitious outcomes at the Climate COP26 in November; an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the Biodiversity COP15 in October, supporting the objective of protecting at least 30% of land and 30% of sea areas by 2030 advocated by the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People; and important progress at the next UN Ocean Conference. We remain committed to the collective developed 

country climate finance goal to jointly mobilize $100 billion per year through to 2025 from a wide variety of sources. In relation to marine litter, including plastics, we will engage in discussions towards a future global framework under UNEP auspices, including with the view to achieving the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision. We jointly encourage all countries, in particular major emerging economies, to elaborate ambitious and detailed short and medium-term pathways, 

targets and policies, including trade promotion, climate finance, research and innovation, aid and foreign investment strategies, aligned with the Paris Agreement objectives/ net zero GHG emissions objective and Sustainable Development Goals.

9. We recognise that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most serious threats to the conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources and the protection of marine environment, which has to be addressed in a collaborative manner. In this regard, we continue to promote the ratification of the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) to eliminate IUU fishing.

10. We will strengthen EU-Japan cooperation on humanitarian aid responses, including on advocacy and respect for International Humanitarian Law and broadening the global donor base in view of sharply increasing humanitarian needs, including in the context of aggravated food crises. We will work together to alleviate malnutrition, including in fragile contexts through the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021. We will enhance cooperation on disaster risk reduction, response and recovery.3

11. We are determined to harness the benefits of data and digital transformation for society, the environment and the economy, while upholding fundamental rights. We will collaborate to promote global standards and comprehensive, including regulatory, approaches for digital policies and technologies, notably on cybersecurity, secure 5G, “Beyond 5G” / 6G technologies, block chain, and safe and ethical applications of artificial intelligence while encouraging aninnovative environment. This collaboration will also cover open and interoperable network architectures. We underline our joint commitment to high standards of protection for personal data, based on the already high degree of convergence between our systems. We undertake to continue cooperation on “Data Free Flow with Trust” with a view to facilitating safe and secure cross-border data flows through enhancing security and privacy. This will help us harness the benefits of the digital economy. We will strive to reach a consensus-based solution on digital taxation by mid-2021 within the OECD. We will work on strengthening EU-Japan digital cooperation to support an inclusive, sustainable, human-centric digital transformation.

Harnessing the benefits of trade, connectivity and innovation

12. We will work together for a successful WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva (30 November to 3 December 2021). We support strengthening and reforming the World Trade Organization as a central pillar of the global economic system. We will work to ensure the proper functioning of the dispute settlement system, to find - as a matter of urgency - a long-lasting solution to the impasse over appointments to the Appellate Body, including through necessary reforms. We will also work to enhance the monitoring function and revitalise negotiations to: increase the 

contribution of trade to health and sustainability objectives; advance rules on e-commerce; and ensure a level playing field by addressing non-market and other unfair trade practices, including excess capacity issues, trade distorting industrial subsidies, building upon the work among the trade ministers of the EU, Japan and the US. We will support the integration of developing countries into the rules-based multilateral trading system by focusing on a Member’s demonstrated needs in a specific area. We welcome the negotiations on the modernization of the 

Energy Charter Treaty and will continue to engage in the negotiations in 2021, with a view to concluding them expeditiously.

13. We mark two years since the entry into force of our Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and express our general satisfaction with its positive results, despite the impact on global trade dueto the COVID-19 pandemic. We reaffirm that full and effective implementation of the EPA remains a joint priority. 

14. It is our mutual priority to promote sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based connectivity through our Partnership for Sustainable Connectivity and Quality Infrastructure. This encompasses cooperation on concrete infrastructure projects respecting the highest economic efficiency, fiscal, environmental, social and transparency standards, including open access to 

These projects should boost growth and bring long-term benefits in the regions of the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Indo-Pacific and Africa. We continue to identify concrete projects, notably through consultations on the ground, on which we will cooperate. We will facilitate financing to incentivise private capital and attract investments by our businesses including by promoting a level playing field. We also continue to promote people-to-people exchanges. We look forward to the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan with its focus on connectivity, the realisation of the SDGs and digitalization, as these can contribute to the post-pandemic recovery.

15. In addition, we recall the importance of transparent lending practices and business conduct by the official and state-sponsored bilateral creditors, adhering to the international rules and standards applied by major creditors. It ensures a level playing field without infringing economic interests of other creditors as well as debtors, thus contributing to the stability of the international financial system. We welcome the extension of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative 

(DSSI) until end-2021, and we call for the full, swift, and effective implementation of the Common Framework agreed by the G20 and the Paris Club, including the principle of comparability of treatment among creditors, to provide timely and orderly debt treatment for eligible countries in a transparent manner with participation of all relevant creditors.

16. We welcome the progress of the negotiations on an Agreement on Certain Aspects of Air Services and look forward to their swift completion. In parallel, we continue EU-Japan cooperation on aviation security.

17. Recognising their vital role in the creation of new knowledge, we commit to expanding cooperation between our industrial, science, research & innovation, and space sectors. We resolve to continue an open dialogue on economic resilience issues, and to explore mechanisms and share best practices to address risks to the resilience of critical global supply chains, in areas such as semi-conductors and raw materials.Working together for a more secure, democratic and stable world 

18. Building on the commonalities between our respective approaches to the region, we will enhance cooperation for a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is inclusive and based on the rule of law and democratic values, as well as unconstrained by coercion. We fully support ASEAN’s unity and centrality as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), and will seek to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN in the region. We will also work with the South Asian and Pacific Island countries.

19. We will enhance consultations on security, particularly on non-proliferation and disarmament and on countering hybrid threats and expand practical cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity, maritime security and crisis management. We recognize the importance of transparent, reliable 

and fact-based information for the resilience of our societies and democracies and will continue dialogues on countering disinformation. We reiterate our commitment to promoting an open, free, stable and secure cyberspace. We welcome the intensified naval cooperation between Japan 

and EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta as well as the first joint port call and accompanying activities in Djibouti last October and the first trilateral EU-Japan-Djibouti anti-piracy exercise earlier this month.

20. We will remain steadfast in our support to nuclear non-proliferation efforts, including to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement by North Korea of its nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and its ballistic missiles programmes of all ranges, in compliance with all relevant UN Security Council resolutions, while supporting diplomatic engagement 

towards peace and security on the Korean peninsula. We will continue to cooperate closely towards the immediate resolution of the abductions issue. We reiterate our joint support to preserve the Iran/Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and ensure its full implementation.

21. We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions. We reaffirm the critical importance of respecting international law, in particular the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) with its provisions on the obligation to settle disputes by peaceful means, and maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight. We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.

22. We will consult and coordinate closely on other regional affairs such as Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar, Ukraine, the Middle East Peace Process, Syria, Sahel, Libya, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the Eastern Mediterranean. We will continue exchanges on our respective relationships with China and Russia. Sharing a common interest in a prosperous, peaceful, democratic and resilient 

Africa, we will enhance synergies in our cooperation with African partners and continue to support their sustainable socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic including through job creation