Under the Framework Agreement between China and ESA, signed in 2005, the 6th ESA – China Space Science Bilateral Meeting was held from June 23 to June 24 in Chengdu.

The meeting was hosted by Mr Yin Hejun, the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Mr Southwood from ESA and Prof. WU Ji, director of the Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CSSAR), co-chaired the meeting.

The bilateral meeting was held in very productive whereby several actions and ideas were discussed. Prior to the bilateral meeting two workshops on High Energy Astrophysics and Space Physics were held with participation from scientists in Europe and China. More than 40 scientists from China and ESA attended the conference.

Finally, the two sides congratulated each other to see the increasing cooperation between European and Chinese scientists. Very many Chinese scientists are working on data from the ESA missions and vice versa. There is a great interest from the European scientific community for the upcoming Chinese space science mission.