Policy and Law

n order to compete with its main geopolitical rival, India, Pakistan is beginning to organise and expand its space resources. Pakistan is set to launch an ambitious space programme in the next fiscal year. Its primary goals include contending with Indian space developments. as well as reducing its own dependence on foreign satellites for civil and military purposes, according to med

As part of its Arctic ambitions for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is teaming up with Finland to develop space-based Arctic monitoring and surveillance. The China Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced this week that China and Finland have signed an agreement to establish a joint research centre for Arctic space observation and data sharing services.

Algeria's ALCOMSAT-1 communications satellite is operational in its orbital slot four months after its launch from China. A handover ceremony was held earlier in April 2018 at the Algerian satellite control centre that will handle all ALCOMSAT-1 operations between Algerian officials and engineers and executives from China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) who built and launched the satellite.

In another sign of growing Japanese strategic influence in Southeast Asia, a senior Japanese official has revealed that Malaysia is seeking satellite and other strategic technologies from the Japanese government and industry.

South Africa's Minister for Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, was joined by France's ambassador to South Africa, Christophe Farnaud, at a ceremony held on 17 April 2018 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) for the send-off the ZACUBE-2 Cubesat to India from where it will be launched later in 2018.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France have entered into an executive programme space agreement signed in France during the visit to Paris by Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

South Korea is considering joining the quest to clean up space debris in Earth orbit, and with it could end up unintentionally developing a dual-use antisatellite (ASAT) system. Following similar recent efforts by Japan and Europe, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Information Communication Technology (ICT) held a meeting last week with industry, universities, and institutes in Seoul to discuss technologies to monitor the rising threat of space junk, as well as the development of technologies to remove space debris in Earth's orbit.

Dr. Nasser Saidi, one of the Middle East's preeminent economists and a former government minister for economics and finance in Lebanon, has said that Arab countries should embrace China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to include participation in and contributions to China's Tiangong space station as well as the Space and Digital Silk Roads.

On 21 March 2018, InSpace Forum 2018, a large event dedicated to commercial space industry and the application of UAV's, kicked off in Moscow. Participants discussed important legal aspects of the aerospace industry and shared experience in business management.

Following quickly on the heels of their expansive space cooperation agreement signed last month, India and France are moving forward by holding detailed talks about building and sending interplanetary probes to Mars and Venus in the coming years.