The council meeting has been attended by heads and representatives of the outer space research areas competent authorities from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and Executive Committee of CIS. Representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan attended in the meeting as observers. The delegation from the Republic of Belarus included representatives or the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which carries out state regulation and coordination of the outer space research activities in Belarus, the State committee on Property of the Republic of Belarus, the State Military and Industrial Committee of the Republic of Belarus.
As the Chairman of the Presidium the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov noted “one of the priority areas of interstate cooperation within the CIS has been and remains cooperation in the area of peaceful outer space exploration, this is confirmed by the adoption in 2018 of new regulatory frameworks that regulate the joint activities of the CIS member states in the outer space areas, and the creation in January 2020 of the Interstate Council on Space. The Republic of Belarus had the honor to chair the Council during the first year of its functioning, based on the results of the functioning, we could confidently state that the decision to establish the council was correct, timely and corresponded to the realities of today. Joint work with the support of the Council as a body of sectoral cooperation in the outer space area will make it possible to form and implement joint programs and projects, promote mutual deception of scientific and technical information, the results of development work in various branches of space science, engineering and technology, and have a positive impact on the preparation process personnel, exchange specialists and scientists”.
As the head of the Interstate Council on Space in 2020 Vladimir Gusakov informed the participants about the results of the work of the Council over the past year under the chairmanship of the republic of Belarus, as well as about the accession of the NASB as plenipotentiary member to the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disaster’ in this year.
At the meeting were considered decisions and made decisions on the need for further development by the CIS member states of a multipurpose aerospace forecasting system for natural and man-made emergencies, integration of ground infrastructures of the CIS member states using GLONASS signals, regulatory and technical regulations for the implementation of joint projects of the CIS member states in the area of outer space activities, and presentations were demonstrated about the results achieved in the area of outer space activities.
The Interstate Council supported proposal of Russian Federation on the practical development of cooperation between the CIS member states in the field of provision and use of space services and on the development of an Interstate Program for this purpose. The Council also decided to consolidate the efforts and work out a common position of the CIS member states on the issues on the agenda of the UN Space Committee and its subcommittees in order to voice it at the UN site.
The NASB held a presentation of the put into operation a Multilevel space system for remote sensing of the Earth using space aviation and ground-based facilities and technologies for their application (MBSSRS), created under the program 6 “Exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes” of the State Program “Science-Intensive Technologies and Engineering” for 2016-2020. About the results of the operation of the subsystem “Monitoring of the land fund” the MBSSRS the meeting participants informed by representatives the State committee on Property of the Republic of Belarus.
In accordance with the provision on the Interstate Council on Space, the chairmanship of the Council for 2020 has passed to the Republic of Kazakhstan. The minister of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry the Republic of Kazakhstan B. Musin was elected head of the Council. The next meeting of the council is scheduled for the first half of 2022 in the Russian Federation.
*The Interstate Council on Space is a body of a sectoral cooperation of the CIS and was created within the framework of the Agreement on joint Activities of the CIS Member States in the Field of exploration and Peaceful Use of Outer Space, signed in Astana on November 2, 2018 within the aim of developing cooperation between the CIS member states and coordinating their joint activities in the space sector. The first meeting of the Interstate Council on Space the CIS Member States was held in the NASB on January 22, 2020.