India and US to Cooperate in Space and ISS?

President Barack Obama and India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a joint diplomatic statement in New Delhi on the third day of the US President's India visit making specific reference to future cooperation specifically referencing human spaceflight and the International Space Station in future civil space cooperation.

"The possibility of cooperation between the two nations in space, to advance scientific knowledge and human welfare, are without boundaries and limits. They commended their space scientists for launching new initiatives in climate and weather forecasting for agriculture, navigation, resource mapping, research and development, and capacity building. They agreed to continuing discussions on and seek ways to collaborate on future lunar missions, international space station, human space flight and data sharing, and to reconvene the Civil Space Joint Working Group in early 2011," the statement read, in part, according to NDTV.

The now expected cooperation between the United States and India came in what The Times of India described at a "bolt from the blue." Indian space officials had recently noted that there was no expectation of their being invited to participate at the International Space Station at an astronautical meeting in Prague just last month. The diplomatic statement will certainly raise eyebrows in Beijing, China this week.

In addition to the high-level political agreements by the elected leaders, there has also been NGO agreement between the United States and India to forge new space-based solar power technologies, reports The Times of India. Spacevidcast provides a video of a teleconference capturing the moment of the conversations between US-India scientists.