U.S., China Hold First Civil Space Dialogue Meeting – UPDATE

UPDATED September 30, 2015 with information about NASA’s participation.

Details are scant, but the State Department announced that the first meeting of the U.S.-China Dialogue on Civil Space Cooperation was held today (September 28, 2015) in Beijing. 

In a media note, the State Department said the meeting “launches a new initiative to enhance cooperation between the two countries and provide better transparency on a variety of space related topics.”  Among the topics discussed today were the countries’ respective space policies, space debris and the long term sustainability of outer space activities, and ways to cooperate on civil Earth observation activities, space sciences, space weather, and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).  

Another meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. in 2016.

The meeting was chaired by the State Department and the China National Space Administration.   The media note did not identify which U.S. government agencies participated, but NASA spokesman Allard Beutel confirmed via email on September 29 that NASA was one of the participants.

The decision to inaugurate this “Dialogue” was announced in June following the seventh round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.  Chinese President Xi Jinping just visited the United States, with a White House meeting with President Obama on September 25.  The State Department’s statement today did not mention Xi’s visit, however, and this meeting was in Beijing, not Washington.

NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are prohibited by law from engaging with China on bilateral space activities unless they get advance approval from Congress.

This article will be updated if more information becomes available.