Japan, US agree to monitor ships from space

Japan and the United States on Monday held their first meeting of the Comprehensive Dialogue on Space and agreed to cooperate in monitoring ships from space, local media report. In a joint statement after the meeting, the two countries said they have agreed on a "legal framework for the provision of information on space debris from the United States to Japan," Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported. Both sides also agreed to share intelligence by the two countries' satellite systems and to cooperate in mapping out international code of conduct in space. Senior officials from Japan's foreign, defense and science ministries and U.S. National Security Council, the State and Defense departments and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration attended the meeting. The Comprehensive Dialogue on Space is a new bilateral consultative regime between Japan and the United States aiming at enhancing the bilateral alliance. Next meeting of the dialogue will be held in Washington in 2014.