Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, is visiting China, Japan and Bahrain from 12 to 18 October for political talks.

In Beijing she will meet Ms Zhao Shaohua, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Culture. The main topic of her talks with Ms Chen Xiaoya, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Education, will be international cooperation on education.

In Tokyo, to celebrate 150 years of German-Japanese diplomatic relations, Ms Pieper will meet, among others, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Yutaka Banno, while a meeting with Yoshiaki Takaki, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, is planned.

She will then visit the Ostasiatische Gesellschaft (German East Asia Association), the Goethe-Institut and the German School Tokyo Yokohama, where she will have talks with leading representatives of German academic institutions.

A meeting with the Bahraini Foreign Minister and the opening of the ARABIA 2010 women’s football tournament are the focuses of Ms Pieper’s visit to Manama, Bahrain.