Russia - The European Space Agency at the MAKS 2003 International Aviation and Space Salon

Space industries from Russia and Western Europe have now a unique and great opportunity to meet and exchange their ideas and plans in view of starting new opportunities of cooperation or further strengthening their already existing links.

Representatives of space industries are invited to contact ESA personnel at the MAKS 2003. On this occasion, opportunities of cooperation can be discussed and direct bilateral contacts can be established between Western European and Russian partners during the MAKS 2003 Aviation and Space Salon.

This initiative is a first mark of the increasing willingness of ESA and Rosaviakosmos (the Russian AeroSpace Agency) to develop mutually beneficial links between the two organisations and it follows the recent signature of the Agreement on Cooperation and Partnership in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes. (* see details below)

In the framework of this Agreement, ESA and Rosaviakosmos have already started contacts to set up joint working groups and other forums for the practical implementation of the cooperation and partnership between their industries. The purpose of these groups and forums is to support their respective industries in the cooperative activities, programmes and projects that will be started under the Agreement.

The ESA Permanent Mission in the Russian Federation will act as a catalyst in facilitating and broadening the cooperation that will be developed through this Agreement with Rosaviakosmos.

Interested industries are invited to contact the ESA Permanent Mission at the MAKS 2003 Aviation and Space Salon (Chalet no. 8).

For further information please contact:

European Space Agency - Permanent Mission in the Russian Federation
Mrs. Tatyana Suslova
Sretensky Bld 6/1 - 122
101000 Moscow - Russia
tel. 7095 9287529
fax 7095 9285352
emodesk@esa.int

(*) The agreement of 11 February 2003 between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation: Fostering industrial cooperation

On 11 February, 2003, Igor.S. Ivanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and Antonio Rodotà, ESA Director General, signed a new Agreement on Cooperation and Partnership in the Exploration and Use of outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, replacing the Agreement signed in 1990 by ESA with the Government of the Soviet Union.

This new Agreement is a comprehensive instrument covering a very wide range of issues and areas in the field of the civilian uses of outer space (from fundamental research to commercial applications), and inaugurating a 10 year-duration Partnership between ESA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (“Rosaviakosmos”) with the ambition to fostering the development of closer links of cooperation and exchanges between Russian and West-European industries.

Whilst providing for a number of principles agreed at governmental level to deal with the administrative procedures encountered in institutional cooperations, the Agreement also provides a general reference framework for industrial joint activities and cooperations carried out in the space field. It is a ground base for both ESA and Rosaviakosmos to enhance the level of industrial activities and exchanges between Russia and Western Europe through the organisation of conferences, symposia and other appropriate forums involving the participation of the respective research, business, industrial and financial communities. It also aims at increasing the level of involvement of small and medium enterprises in cooperative ventures.

The Agreement purports to develop cooperation in a balanced and mutually beneficial manner in particular in the following areas:

• fundamental and applied space sciences
• microgravity research, materials processing, space medicine and biology
• remote sensing of the Earth for environmental monitoring space telecommunications, satellite navigation and positioning
• human space flights, including automatic or manned space vehicles
• human planetary exploration
• launchers and transportation systems
• spin-offs derived from space systems and technologies

The Agreement also provides for the organisation of training programmes, the holding of symposia, the provision of technical assistance, and the enhancement of the managerial, financial and legal interfaces which are essential in making cooperations a success.

Cooperation in each of the fields jointly identified between ESA and Rosaviakosmos is to be further developed through implementing agreements, arrangements and contracts among the European Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos, and the respective industries. The Agreement contains innovative features and reference mechanisms for facilitating the conclusion of direct contracts with industry, or between industries in the space field, concerning issues such as protection of business-confidential information, exchange of information and data, protection of Intellectual Property, export controls, technology safeguards, protection of property, etc.