On January 23, the Kingdom of Belgium became the 34th country to sign the Artemis Accords. The ceremony at the Brussels Museum was attended by Haja Rabib, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs, Foreign Trade and the Federal Cultural Institutions, and Thomas Delmin, Secretary of State for Economic Recovery and Strategic Investment. The Under-Secretary of Economic Affairs and Employment for Science Policy signed the agreement on behalf of Belgium.
The United States and Belgium are close partners and NATO allies, and Belgium is a major contributor to the NASA-led Artemis mission through its membership in the European Space Agency. In December 2023, Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and US Ambassador to Belgium Michael Adler visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center with Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois. The United States is pleased to deepen our close cooperation on space issues through Belgium’s affirmation of the Artemis Accord’s vision for the peaceful exploration and use of outer space.
The Artemis Accord was established in 2020 with the participation of eight countries and co-led by the State Department and NASA to establish a practical set of principles to guide and foster cooperation through space exploration. The Kingdom of Belgium joins Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Ta. Nigeria, Poland, South Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States affirmed the principles of the Agreement for Peaceful and Sustainable Civil Space Activities.
For more information, see Artemis Accords.For media inquiries, please contact us here OES-Press@state.gov.