India signs the “Artemis Accords” with the USA for the regulated exploitation of space and its demilitarization
In a significant change from its conventional stance of not joining voluntary agreements for international space policy, India has become the latest signatory to the Artemis Accords. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the agreements during his first official state visit this week, the White House said in a press release.
For years, India has argued for a legally binding treaty to regulate global space activities and prevent their use as a weapon. A country that has in the past opposed strong space policy ties with Russia or the United States, India saw itself as a major counterweight to geopolitical rivalries and called for international law to monitor civilian and military space activities.
Over the past decade, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has made great strides with its missions to the Moon and Mars, but its achievements have been overshadowed by the successes of neighboring China, which even surpassed the United States. United in the number of annual launches.
What are Artemis Accords?
Established in 2020, the Artemis Accords are a set of common principles to govern space exploration and the use of outer space. These include transparency, interoperability, registration of space objects, energy assistance, sharing of scientific data and regulations for the extraction of space resources and their use, to name a few.
While these agreements were intended to establish common ground between participating nations and private companies involved in upcoming Artemis missions of lunar exploration, they gained geopolitical significance as other nations signed up as signatories, bringing the tally to 27, with China being the big absentee.
A move to counter China's growing influence?
As ties between the US and China plummet to new lows, India's relationship with its neighbor has also been shaky after turf disputes in the country's north. Not only does China aim to surpass the United States in developing technologies on Earth, but it has also signed an agreement with Russia to establish a research station on the Moon.
China is no longer satisfied with being a member of the elite space club, but wants to become a space power with leading expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, manufacturing, spacecraft maintenance and solar space power, as humanity aims to reach Mars and beyond, says The Interpreter.
With Beijing seeking to use its technological prowess as a soft-power tool on the global stage, the United States is working to counter its growing influence and expanding civilian and military space activities. Now, with India joining the Artemis Accords, the US has managed to further isolate China.
Following the signing, NASA and ISRO also announced a joint mission planned for next year, details of which are still scarce. A joint mission with NASA in a short space of time could add some urgency to ISRO, whose launches have yet to pick up on the pace they had before the pandemic.
India has some ambitious missions planned this year, with the aim of launching a solar observatory in August.
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The article India signs the “Artemis Agreements” with the USA for the regulated exploitation of space and its demilitarization comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lindia-firma-con-gli-usa-gli-accordi-artemis-per-lo-sfruttamento-regolato-dello-spazio-e-la-sua-demilitarizzazione/ on Fri, 23 Jun 2023 17:05:01 +0000.