India, France talks to address outer space challenges

India and France have agreed to set up a strategic dialogue to address challenges related to space issues, particularly in maintaining secure access to outer space. The development is significant amid China's efforts to weaponise space.

The decision to create the dialogue was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Paris visit on Wednesday. The dialogue will bring together experts from space and defence agencies, administration and specialised ecosystems to discuss security and economic challenges in outer space, the norms and principles applicable to space as well as unveil new areas of cooperation, officials said.

The two sides agreed to hold the first dialogue at the earliest this year. Besides boosting space related cooperation, the two sides decided to connect their start-up ecosystems, according to officials. India will be the first Country of the Year at Vivatech, Europe's largest digital fair, in Paris.


India and France share decades' old partnership in the civilian space sector. Last year, space agencies of India and France signed an agreement for cooperation for the country's first human space mission Gaganyaan. The Indo-French relationship in space is spread over different facets of space science, technology and applications, including sounding rocket development, liquid engine development, hosting of payloads, joint satellite realisation, training programmes, satellite communication experiment and satellite launches. Indian Space Research Organisation and the French National Space Agency have jointly realised two world-class space missions. The partnership was also extended to the area of high resolution earth observation to realise a joint earth observation mission with high resolution imaging capability in optical and microwave domains. India and France launched a joint vision for space cooperation in 2018.