The European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos are cooperating well despite the European Union’s support for anti-Russian sanctions, Head of the ESA Permanent Mission in Moscow Rene Pischel said in an interview with TASS.
"The European Union notes that despite sanctions, the countries should maintain relations with Russia at the level of culture and science, including in space <...> As I see, space cooperation between the ESA and Roscosmos is doing rather well," Pischel said.
Pischel stressed that the ESA is not part of the European Union and major areas of the agency’s work are defined by certain states.
The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2014 after the events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia.