1. The seventh meeting of the Republic of Korea-Israel Joint Cultural Committee took place at the former’s Foreign Ministry on May 16, with Director-General for Cultural Affairs Choi Young-sam of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Director-General for Cultural and Scientific Relations Raphael Gamzou of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs leading their respective delegations.

2. The ROK and Israel, sharing the view that it is important to combine culture, education, science and technology of the two countries in order to achieve cultural enrichment, sought specific ways to that end.

° The two sides drew up the “ROK-Isarel Program of Educational, Scientific, Cultural, Youth and Sports Cooperation for the years 2016-2018” with the aim to further boost exchanges in diverse sectors, including culture, arts, education, science and technology.

° The two sides agreed to designate the “ROK-Israel cultural week” during which diverse events will be held to introduce to the peoples of their respective countries the culture of the other country and offer them opportunities for first-hand experience.

° In the education sector, the two countries agreed to offer scholarship invitations to students of each other’s countries and to promote Korean studies in Israel as well as Hebrew studies in the ROK.

° In the science and technology sectors, the two sides agreed on the need to step up cooperation in their strong areas, and reaffirmed the importance of conducting joint research on human immunity, microbial genomes and materials engineering, as agreed at the sixth meeting of the Joint Economic Committee in June 2015.

3. The two countries have been working closely together to lay the institutional groundwork for bilateral exchanges, as demonstrated by the seven meetings of the Joint Cultural Committee over the past twenty years since the conclusion of the bilateral Agreement on Cultural Cooperation in 1994.


* unofficial translation