US seeks six-month extension to science agreement with China
China so that it can undergo negotiations with Beijing to «amend and strengthen» the landmark deal, the State Department said on Wednesday.
For over 40 years, the agreement between the two countries has yielded cooperation across a range of scientific and technical fields, a powerful sign that the rivals could set aside their disputes and work together.
The deal, signed when Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties in 1979 and renewed about every five years since, has resulted in cooperation in areas from atmospheric and agricultural science to basic research in physics and chemistry.
But concerns about China's growing military prowess and theft of U.S. scientific and commercial achievements have prompted questions about whether the Science and Technology Agreement (STA), set to expire on Aug. 27, should continue.
«This short-term six-month extension will keep the agreement in force while we seek authority to undertake negotiations to amend and strengthen the terms of the STA. It does not commit the United States to a longer-term extension,» a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.
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The department said the deal provides consistent standards for government-to-government scientific cooperation, and if it lapsed each agency would have to negotiate individual arrangements with Beijing.
«We are clear-eyed to the challenges posed by (China's) national strategies on science and technology, Beijing's actions in this space, and the threat they pose to U.S. national security and intellectual property,
