Nigeria and Rwanda became the first African countries to sign the Artemis Agreement this week during the first-ever US-Africa Space Forum.
The Artemis Agreements are a broad and non-binding framework that outlines agreements for responsible and peaceful international exploration of the Moon. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the addition of Nigeria and Rwanda to this agreement on the first day of the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC (December 13-15), of which the First Space Forum was a part.
The United States State Department later issued a statement (opens in a new tab) In memory of the addition of Nigeria and Rwanda to the agreement. “Nigeria and Rwanda became the first African countries to sign the Artemis agreements. Participants in the forum, which was part of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, discussed how to advance shared goals through the exploration and peaceful use of outer space,” the statement reads.
Related: The Artemis Accords: Why the International Lunar Exploration Framework Matters
The agreements were signed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Ibrahim on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by the Director General of the Rwanda Space Agency Francis Ngabo on behalf of the Republic of Rwanda, according to the statement.
“The signatories commit to principles that will guide their civilian space activities, including public release of scientific data, responsible waste reduction, registration of objects in space, and establishment and implementation of interoperability standards,” the State Department statement continues.
The Artemis Accords were launched jointly by NASA and the US State Department along with eight countries in 2020 with the stated aim of promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation in space between the signatories. The signing of Nigeria and Rwanda to the Lunar Coalition means that there are now 23 signatories to the agreements, which set out principles and best practices to research
The agreements take their name from NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the late 2020s.
The first countries to sign up were the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, with South Korea in 2021 to be the first of many signed during the Biden administration. Other countries such as Russia and China have argued that the agreements are far too US-centric and represent a power grab by the US and its allies.
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