EXPANDING REGIONAL SPACE COOPERATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION UTILIZING THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL SPACE AGENCY FORUM (APRSAF)

摘要

The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF), a unique cooperation framework in the Asia-Pacific region, is recognized as one of the regional cooperation models. It is an open, flexible, and voluntary-based forum for everyone who shares the same principles, namely promoting and expanding peaceful uses of space for socio-economic development in the region. Last year, APRSAF celebrated its 20th anniversary, and the participants agreed to further development of APRSAF through restructuring the framework of APRSAF working groups. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review APRSAF's history, structure, operation, and accomplishments in the past 20 years as well as to examine ways that APRSAF has been expanding regional space cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.