The French Space Agency CNES’ Toulouse, France location. Photo: CNES

[Via Satellite 12-10-2014] Manuel Valls, prime minister of France, and Bohuslav Sobotka, prime minister of the Czech Republic, have signed a treaty of cooperation on the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. During the French prime minister’s two-day visit to the Czech Republic, the leaders agreed to hold the first French-Czech committee meeting early next year. Together the two countries will evaluate bilateral cooperation opportunities in science and Earth Observation (EO), greater cooperation within European Space Agency (ESA) projects including EO and telecommunications, and collaboration on European Union projects such as Copernicus and Galileo.

The two agencies will also work together with the Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA), which is headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said the treaty will “strengthen the already close and constructive ties our two nations have established in space and put them on a formal footing.”