During the visit of the leading Chinese officials in Poland, a memorandum of understanding on cooperation has been signed by and between the national space agencies of both countries. The event during which the provisions of the memorandum have been ratified took place on 20th June this year, at the Presidential Palace, in the presence of the Polish President Andrzej Duda and Xi Jinping, who is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the President of the People's Republic of China. The memorandum of understanding has been signed by and between the POLSA President – Professor Marek Banaszkiewicz, and head of the CNSA – Xu Dazhe.

The agreement creates legal and organizational framework for prospective collaboration between the national agencies, within the scope of exploration and use of the outer space for the peacetime purposes. Thee document’s purpose is also to create tools making it possible to create and maintain mutual relations within that scope.

The memorandum in question indicates three main areas, within the collaboration between POLSA and CNSA could be implemented: space research, with a particular focus placed on astrophysics and the Solar System research, satellite data exchange and use in the Earth research initiatives (observation, monitoring the environment), and development of space technologies, also in the field of telecommunications.

China is one of the key players of the global space sector. We are happy with the fact that we have signed a memorandum with the Chinese National Space Agency, since it paves a road towards implementation of interesting projects pertaining to scientific exchange, organization of symposia and workshops, or other joint space initiatives.

Chinese National Space Agency is a governmental organ brought to life, in order to implement the civil space programmes. China currently has one of the most expansive space exploration budgets at its disposal. According to the OECD report, it was contained in a sum of US 6.1 billion, back in 2013. The Chinese space activities are focused on exploration of space – including Moon and Mars, Earth Observation, astronomy, space research and development of the spacecraft and space flight technologies, including the ones concerning the manned missions.

The memorandum of understanding signed with CNSA is the first document of this type signed by POLSA this year. It is worth to note the fact that back in 2015 POLSA also signed memorandums on cooperation with space agencies hailing from France (CNES), Italy (ASI), Ukraine (NSAU) and Brazil (AEB).

Read More: Poland and Ukraine Look Into Space Collaboration [Space24]