First foreign space agency opens in Abu Dhabi

The French Embassy in the UAE has opened a representative office of the French space agency in Abu Dhabi ,Centre National d’Etudes Spatiale (CNES) to be the first foreign space agency opening a representative office in the UAE.

The announcement was made on the visit of Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the CNES, to the UAE, during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi in presence of Mohammed Al Ahbabi, Director-General of the UAE Space Agency, UAE News Agency (WAM) reported.

"To lead this endeavour to invent the future of space, we need to exchange ideas and try to see things differently. This is exactly what international cooperation and our partnership with the UAE is fostering at CNES. The historic partnership between France and the UAE is getting stronger and richer every day. I have no doubt that space will keep making a vigorous contribution to our countries’ cooperation," Le Gall said.

The partnership allows both countries to mutually exchange competencies and conduct common projects and aims to allow new missions to be developed jointly. It also fosters the emergence of a new generation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics specialists and nurture new space-based applications, supporting economic development and a more sustainable society.