CNES and AEM review progress of French-Mexican space cooperation

Monday 2 February, Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES President and a member of the French-Mexican Strategic Council, met Francisco Javier Mendieta Jiménez, Director General of the Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM), to review progress of space cooperation between France and Mexico since the framework agreement signed on 10 April 2014 in Mexico City, which the two nations have quickly set in motion.

Formed in 2010, overseen by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Transport (SCT) and headed by Francisco Javier Mendieta Jiménez, the Mexican space agency AEM is tasked with shaping Mexico’s space policy. Mexico has great ambitions in space, is already pursuing a solid telecommunications programme and has established strong cooperative ties with international partners. Thanks to its SPOT satellite receiving stations, Mexico also has the capability to develop advanced space applications for mapping, land-use monitoring and coastal surveillance.

With a view to establishing more formal collaborative ties, France and Mexico’s space agencies signed a framework agreement on 10 April 2014 during French President François Hollande’s state visit to Mexico. This collaboration was consolidated by the workshop held in Mexico City last December on image processing and natural disaster management. At their meeting, Mr Le Gall and Mr Mendieta discussed the next phase in their cooperation, for example through exchanges between the University of Mexico and the Toulouse Space Centre, aimed at stepping up the longstanding industrial partnership between France and Mexico, which is set to gain traction in the years ahead. CNES’s President also confirmed that he will be attending the Heads of Space Agencies meeting organized by IAA in September in Mexico City focusing on climate change in the run-up to the COP 21 global climate summit.

After the meeting, Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “I was delighted to take this opportunity to talk with Francisco Javier Mendieta Jiménez, who is a close partner of CNES. Mexico has great ambitions in space and its considerable achievements confirm its position as a leading player in this sector. We need only look at the speed and determination with which our teams have begun collaborating since the signature last April of our framework agreement, which has been expedited in such quick time. More than ever before, France and Mexico look forward to engaging many scientific and industrial projects together.”