United Nations Committe on the Peaceful

Distinguished Valentina Vladimirovna,

Your Excellency Ms. Mazlan Othman,

Your Excellency Ambassador Ozawa,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me today to be a part of this solemn reception, organized regarding the opening of the fifty-sixth session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. It is remarkable that this year’s Committee session starts in honor of women who made an important contribution to space science, satellite building, engineering disciplines, international space law. And first of all we honor women who travelled into space themselves.

Today with us is the first woman to have flown in space, Hero of the Soviet Union, Mrs. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. With her courage and devotion to the dream of space exploration in June 1963 she added a vivid page to the history of the universe.

Heroic deed of Valentina Vladimirovna will always remain in history. She opened a way to the female cosmonautics – other women, inspired by her example, travelled into space. We are glad to welcome here at this reception the first woman in Asia to have flown in space Mrs. Chiaki Mukai.

Today programmes of manned flights are much wider and more interesting than they used to be in the 1960s. Modern development of science and technology made long-term orbit flights and science experiments possible though it seemed unbelievable in the past. In many ways it is a result of a broad international cooperation in civil space exploration, good example of which we can name Russian-Japanese cooperation in various phases of creation and exploitation of the International Space Station. As well, due to the joint Russian-Japanese efforts, ISS as a leader of the world’s manned cosmonautics became a reliable orbital home for male and female cosmonauts from different generations.

We also highly appreciate our bilateral cooperation in the area of national space agencies. Our country has traditionally supported and continues to support activity of the regional forum of space organizations of the APR-countries, that was established 20 years ago on the Tokyo initiative.

Today’s reception is a bright illustration of the successfully developing Russian-Japanese relations and mutual understanding. I would like to thank Japanese side for the opportunity to organize joint reception and wish our Japanese colleagues all the success in their presidency at the 56^th Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. I would like to propose a toast to the first woman-cosmonaut in the world – to Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. I wish you health and success, Valentina Vladimirovna!