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Ready to take Indo-UAE space relations to new height: Union space minister Jitendra Singh at Abu Dhabi Space Debate

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates opened its global space conference ‘ Abu Dhabi Space Debate’ on Monday and gave an honour to India and Israel as the only two countries to allow their leaders to make the inaugural address at the global forum, showing the importance the Emirates gives to its relations with New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

More than 52 space entities from 46 countries are participating in the two-day global event.

Addressing the global space meet, Union space minister Jitendra Singh acknowledged the presence of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed at the opening ceremony and conveyed PM Modi's warm greetings to him. While congratulating the people of the UAE on the “51 years of the formation of this great country on behalf of the people of India and for completing the silver jubilee of its space odyssey”, Singh said development of the space sector is one of the priority areas for both India and the UAE.

Singh said the indigenously developed space sector of India and the fast-growing space sector of the UAE have a lot of complementariness that can be harnessed. He said, “If we want to ensure that space remains a sector to serve our shared humanity, it is important to bring all the stakeholders together to discuss and deliberate about space and in this regard, this platform has the potential to shape the future of the space sector.” Emphasizing global tie-up on space, Singh said, “It is like a global bus that all have to board and if its tyre is punctured, then all are affected. There is no other option.”

Singh said among several pioneering initiatives of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed is the Abu Dhabi Space Debate, which reflects his commitment and vision for the space sector. He said that much of this vision has already become a reality with the UAE sending a space mission to Mars orbit, thereby becoming the sixth such country demonstrating its prowess in the space sector and on top of that, the UAE became the only second country, other than India, to successfully launch a Mars orbiter in its very first attempt.

Speaking to TOI just after the address, Jitendra Singh said, “Giving India a platform to speak at the inaugural address shows how much UAE values its bilateral relations with India.” Singh said India will provide every support to the UAE as the country is accelerating in the space field. Both countries had already signed an MoU with India in 2016 and now we would take our ties to a new height.”

The minister said India started its space journey seven decades ago from scratch and is today acknowledged to be a leading space power. The minister said the best part of India’s space programme was to use satellite technology to improve the ease of living like using space technology in fields of railways, agriculture and developing smart cities.
He said the Indian space industry today is renowned across the globe for two things – reliability and economy. India is proud to have the maximum success ratio in the world for its flagship space launching vehicle PSLV. Just a few weeks back, India’s PSLV launched 36 satellites, including for countries from both the developed and developing world. Singh said in the light of the Indian philosophy of Vasudeva Kutumbakam (world is one family), India wants to share the fruits of space development to reach all countries and bring closer cooperation between governments and private entities in the space sector.

While talking about Israel-UAE space cooperation, Israel President Isaac Herzog said, “Today it is critical that we deepen and expand such transnational partnerships for the benefit of our planet and our region. Our cooperation can turn our beautiful region into a global hub of climate solutions.” While lauding India’s space programmes, Herzog said “India, Israel and the UAE should work together” and excel in the sector. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata addressed the Abu Dhabi conference from the International Space Station and talked about space cooperation and protecting the Earth.

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