WASHINGTON: The US and Japan signed an agreement Friday to further expand space cooperation between the two countries.

The signing ceremony at NASA headquarters in Washington was attended by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the administrator of the space agency, Bill Nelson.

Kishida said US-Japan space cooperation “entered a new era,” noting many ongoing projects that Japanese and American astronauts are working on together. Blinken said the agreement will “strengthen our partnership in areas like research on space, technology, and transportation, robotic lunar surface missions, climate-related missions, and our shared ambition to see a Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface.”