The five-day India-US Conference on Space Science, Applications and Commerce in the southern city of Bangalore will adopt a vision statement to lay the foundation for future cooperation, they said Saturday.

"The main objective of this conference is to expand cooperation between India and the US in the field of space science and applications as well as related commercial activity and expand business activities in space," said G. Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

He said the conference was a follow-up to a landmark meeting between former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and US President George W. Bush in November 2001.

More than 500 Indian and foreign delegates will attend the conference, among them 150 US officials and industry representatives, who will discuss earth observation science, satellite communications, satellite navigation and applications, space science, natural hazards research and disaster and space commerce.

The US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Agriculture will also be represented.

Private corporations such Boeing, Raytheon, Intelsat, Northorp Grumman and the University of Texas, University of California and George Mason University will also participate.

"This is the first time in history of Indo-US space cooperation that such a conference is being organised," said S. Krishnamurthy, ISRO spokesman.

Relations between India and the United States have warmed dramatically in the past few years after the US lifted sanctions slapped on India's nuclear and space programmes following New Delhi's nuclear test blasts in 1998.

The sanctions resulted in a freeze on exchanges in the nuclear and other high-tech sectors.

The decision to resume contact on nuclear safety was taken in November 2001 at a meeting between Bush and Vajpayee.

Marco Di Capua, Counselor for Science, Environment Technology and Health Affairs at the US Embassy New Delhi, said the conference was a watershed in the space relationship between the two countries.

"The Indo-US space relationship went through a slight period of estrangement for a few years and this conference symbolises we coming together again," Capua said.

"We are learning how to speak together, talk together and how to reach to each other again. I think it will be done."

SPACE.WIRE