Leaders from the United States and Japan met recently at the Washington, D.C.headquarters of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) to sign a framework agreement on "peaceful" space exploration.
Among those attending the Jan. 13 signing ceremony of the U.S.-Japan Framework Agreement on Space Cooperation were U.S. Sec. of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced at the time.
Sec. Blinken stated on Twitter that he was "delighted" to sign the agreement with Kishida and Hayashi
“The future of space is collaborative,” Blinken said in the tweet.
Blinken called the partnership between the U.S. and Japan "among the strongest in the world," according to a transcript of remarks released by the DOS, "in part because we're always adapting it to meet the evolving challenges of our time.
"And that's the case on everything from advancing security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, to bolstering our economic and energy security, to defending the rights at the core of the United Nations Charter," Blinken said. "We’re also expanding the horizons of our partnership in a very literal way: through space cooperation."
Blinken spoke of the collaborations in space exploration between the U.S. and Japan, including support of the International Space Station (ISS), signing the Artemis Accord and partnering in the Artemis Program to return astronauts to the moon's surface, and a recent agreement "to support the Lunar Gateway, which will prepare for future missions to Mars.
"The Framework Agreement that we’re about to sign will take our cooperation to new heights," Blinken said. "It’ll strengthen our partnership in areas like research on space technology and transportation, robotic lunar surface missions, climate-related missions, and our shared ambition to see a Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface."
Prime Minister Kishida said "space cooperation" between the U.S. and Japan "has entered a new era."
"But I strongly hope that this agreement will robustly promote our space cooperation even further," Kishida said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the alliance between the U.S. and Japan is built on "diplomacy, democracy and discovery," according to the transcript.
"Our nations are both space-faring nations, nations poised to unlock the secrets of the universe," Nelson said. "And today, we are once again reaffirming that Japan and the U.S. explore openly, explore peacefully, and explore together."