Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a whirlwind tour of European capitals to lay the ground work for a G7 summit he’s due to host this month. On Monday he held talks with French President Francois Hollande in Paris and earlier he met Italy’s Matteo Renzi in Rome.

Next it’s Belgium, Germany, Britain and Russia.

At the news conference France stressed the importance of the relationship between the two countries and the need to implement the climate change conference, COP21, commitments made in Paris last year.