Israel, UAE Space Ambitions And Lessons For India

NEW DELHI: One of the most significant geopolitical events in many decades transpired when the United States intervened in the relation-normalising Abraham Accords between Israel and several countries in western Africa and the Arab world. Overall, the relation-normalising process will slowly percolate on numerous fronts, including trade, security, education, health, transportation, science and technology, communications and agriculture. Whatever the case, the positive consequences of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be a template for other nations normalising or interested in normalising their relations with Israel for the foreseeable future. Israel and the UAE did not waste much time signing a space cooperation agreement after the Abraham Accords. The UAE Space Agency and the Israel Space Agency used the Expo 2020 Dubai Space Week occasion. Aside from their interest in sharing space-based meteorological and Earth-observation competencies, both nations have agreed to extend the cooperation to lunar exploration. The new partners are also the only countries with lunar ambitions in West Asia, with the UAE preparing to launch its Rashid lunar mission and Israel its Beresheet-2 mission in 2024. The agreement signed also includes a potential collaboration on research and development of scientific payload for the Beresheet-2....Read More