Etienne Schneider, the deputy prime minister of Luxembourg, signed the treaty with his Belgian counterpart Didier Renyders.
The treaty details that the two countries will create and apply an international framework for space exploration and the use of spatial resources.
Certainly an ambitious agreement, but the treaty falls in line with Luxembourg’s strategy of being the first European country to create a legal framework with space mining.
Luxembourg followed the United States in that regard, and has been followed by other countries such as China, Japan, the UAE, and the Czech Republic. Now Belgium becomes the seventh country that Luxembourg will collaborate with in space mining.
The reinforcement comes at a good time for the Luxembourgish government, which has received significant backlash for its lost investment in Planetary Resources. The two ministers wrote in a joint statement that their initial focus will be resources on the moon and asteroids closer to earth.
The goal remains utopian, as it is yet to be seen when and how a company could go find precious material and make a profit.
