RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT decisions..

Submitting to the State Duma a draft law to ratify the Agreement between the governments of Russia and China to protect classified technologies in the course of cooperation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space
7 September 2017 07:30


The Agreement was signed 25 June 2016 in Beijing during President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to China.

The draft law, On Ratifying the Agreement between the Governments of the Russian Federation and China to protect classified technologies in the course of cooperation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space and the development and operation of launch vehicles and ground-based space infrastructure (hereinafter referred to as the draft law and the Agreement, respectively), has been submitted by the Foreign Ministry and the Roscosmos State Corporation.

The Agreement was signed 25 June 2016 in Beijing during President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to China.

The Agreement aims to expand Russian-Chinese cooperation in the area of space activity.

The Agreement sets forth various principles and norms for expanded cooperation in the area of space activity, regulating the extent of the parties’ access to technical data and the procedure of such access. This concerns access to technical data, as well as equipment and technology linked with joint projects at all stages of their implementation: during the process of developing and manufacturing classified goods and technologies, during their transportation, during customs control, during preparations of launch vehicles and ground-based space infrastructure and their operation, and during possible emergencies.

The Agreement’s export control section includes provisions obliging the Parties to duly protect classified technologies, and it stipulates the appropriate mechanisms for providing such protection, including by drafting and approving specific technology-protection plans.

Under the federal law On International Treaties of the Russian Federation, the Agreement is subject to ratification because it contains regulations differing from those stipulated by Russian legislation.

The Agreement’s implementation will make it possible to invigorate the activity of Russian organisations and enterprises of the spacecraft and rocket industry by awarding additional contracts to them.

The draft law was reviewed and approved by participants in the 31 August 2017 Government meeting.