Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday welcomed French President Emannuel Macron for the first stop of his U.S. visit: a meeting at NASA headquarters to discuss and strengthen the countries’ six-decade partnership on space.

What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday welcomed French President Emannuel Macron for the first stop of his U.S. visit: a meeting at NASA headquarter

  • The meeting was expected to be an opportunity for the two leaders to review cooperation on space after they met in Paris last year; Harris and Macron agreed to regular meetings between the two countries on space issues

  • Harris on Wednesday called France a “vital ally for the U.S.”

  • Macron said it was important for the U.S. and France to align on space issues because they share the same values, noting space was a "new place of conflict"

The meeting was expected to be an opportunity for the two leaders to review cooperation on space after they met in Paris last year; Harris and Macron agreed to regular meetings between the two countries on space issues, the first of which happened earlier this month.

Alongside French ministers, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and both countries’ ambassadors, Harris on Wednesday called France a “vital ally for the U.S.”

“I believe space remains a place of undiscovered and unrealized opportunities. And for that reason, there's so much potential in terms of the work that nations can do there,” the vice president said. “And in particular, when we work together, based on shared principles and values, to seize these opportunities.”

In June, France signed the Artemis Accords, a NASA-led set of principles used to govern international civil use of space. The same month, the U.S. made good on a promise to join the France-led Space for Climate Observatory, which is meant to model and track climate change.

“We did a lot together in the past decades and I think we can do a lot and we have a lot of projects,” President Macron told Harris Wednesday before the meeting. “We decided together to strengthen this cooperation and larger strategic dialogue of space.”

Macron called space a “new place of conflict” with “crazy players” and “rogue states.”

“It's very important together because we do share this history,” he said. “We do have the same commitment and attachment to science and progress that we do share, as well as democratic values.”

France this week also signed on to a U.S. commitment Harris announced in April, a ban on destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missile testing. 

It was part of Harris’ call on the National Security Council to propose national security norms in space. Six other countries have signed on to the ban since April.

The vice president serves as chair of the National Space Council, and she has presided over two meetings of the group.