Joint Statement from the Second Meeting of the Japan-US Comprehensive Dialogue on Space
Following is the text of a joint statement issued by the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Japan at the conclusion of the Second Meeting of the Japan-U.S. Comprehensive Dialogue on Space, held on Friday, May 9, 2014 in Washington, DC.
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Pursuant to their shared goal of continuing to advance bilateral space cooperation as declared by their leaders, the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States of America held their Second Meeting of the Comprehensive Dialogue on Space in Washington, DC on May 9, 2014. This follows the First Comprehensive Dialogue, held on March 11, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.
This meeting was co-chaired by representatives from the Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of National Space Policy – Cabinet Office from the Japanese side, and by the representatives from the Executive Office of the President’s National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy for the United States. Principal participants were National Security Secretariat, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Defense and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from the Japanese side and Executive Office of the President, Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, and Transportation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the United States Geological Survey from the U.S. side.
The convening of this Second Comprehensive Dialogue on Space builds on the initiative begun last year to enhance and strengthen cooperation between two of the world’s most advanced spacefaring nations from a broad, inclusive, and strategic perspective. With the participation of experts from across the two governments, the Dialogue ensures a whole-of-government approach to space issues and space cooperation relevant to a wide range of interests, including resource and disaster management, environmental monitoring, remote sensing, technology development, scientific discovery, national and international security, and economic growth.
At the Second Comprehensive Dialogue, given the common security challenges our two countries face, both sides confirmed the advent of a new era for Japan-U.S. space cooperation in which invigoration of Japan’s outer space activities would contribute to enhancing the resiliency of space assets essential to the security of both the United States and Japan. Both sides affirmed their intention to make Japan-U.S. space cooperation action-oriented.
At the second meeting, both sides exchanged information on respective space policies, including Japan’s newly formulated Basic Plan on Space Policy, and the U.S. National Space Transportation Policy. Both sides continued their discussions of remote sensing data policy and regulatory mechanisms. Both sides conducted discussions for further collaboration in positioning, navigation, and timing services from the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), as well as Earth observation and space science, to include weather observation and global environment observation from space. In addition, both sides shared the intention to continue cooperation on the International Space Station and discussions regarding future space exploration activities. Both sides are looking forward to the International Space Exploration Forum that will be hosted by Japan in 2016 or 2017.
Both sides discussed space security cooperation and confirmed their interest in implementing further bilateral cooperation in Space Situational Awareness (SSA) information sharing and pursuing opportunities to strengthen resiliency. Both sides also welcomed the Exchange of Notes concerning SSA Services and Information Sharing from the U.S. side to the Japanese side in May 2013, and the arrangement for the provision of SSA information from JAXA to the U.S. Strategic Command in May 2014. Both sides recognized that these initiatives enable enhanced “two-way” SSA information sharing between the two countries.
Both sides also reaffirmed their continued interest in collaboration on evaluating the operational and economic benefits from the use of space for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), noting that the two countries successfully held the first tabletop exercise for space-based MDA in March 2014. Both sides also reiterated the importance of continued cooperation on the pursuit of transparency and confidence-building measures (TCBMs) for space activities, including the proposed International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities, and implementation of the recommendations from the 2013 report of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on TCBMs in Outer Space Activities.
Both sides confirmed the strategic importance of the Comprehensive Dialogue on Space which will continue to guide overall bilateral space cooperation policies, and reaffirmed that this Dialogue would strengthen cooperative relations between the two countries across ministries, departments, and agencies.
