Déclarations à la presse de Nicolas Forissier, ministre délégué auprès du ministre de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, chargé du Commerce extérieur et de l’Attractivité, lors du Sommet spatial international

Nicolas Forissier - Think about space. What I know is that this summit, I think, is very important because it shows the energy and the capacity of being the leader of (inaudible). It was the idea of the president, I think he was quite right to push this summit. The idea is to create more links between our companies, our institutions in this field, which is, of course, a strategic one. And I want to say I came here more as a foreign trade and attractiveness minister to show the leadership of France in this field, but also to meet and support the French companies that belong to the ecosystem. We can have some very big companies like ENSAT, for example, or others. I met ENSAT team. You can have also some startups or scalers. For example, I was with SkyNopy, which is a very interesting company. They invented a very performing, dynamic solution. They are expanding very fast. This is French touch, the French « génie ». And my job is to try to help them to give more energy, show that they are on top, and also to contribute for the future to build some European approaches. For example, we had a meeting this morning with Benjamin Haddad, who was organizing it, and commissioners and CEOs of European companies, on the idea of working together for a kind of consortium to have a D2D direct device constellation. It's not done. We have to work on it. And there has to be an offer which comes from the unity of Europe and at least the collaboration of European companies and European countries also. And of course it may also include some countries and companies from countries that are not members of the European Union. So these are discussions that are taking place in the framework of this summit. I think it's very important. It gives some impulse, some energy to the system. And of course we will go on pushing it. 

And it's my duty to say that this is to say two things. This is first a very positive sign of the fact that France is an attractive country. I'm just saying this all the time. Sometimes the French people, they don't see it because they are, and it's normal, very much concerned by the internal problems, the economic problems, the geopolitical problems that are around us, especially Ukraine, but also Ormuz and so on. In fact, for the seventh consecutive year for international direct investment in Europe. And what we see in the field of space is in a way a new testimony of it, a new proof of it. So this is my duty to say it and to say it with energy and proudness. But of course we know that we have to go on and that we have to build more partnerships, win-win partnerships with European countries, European companies. 

The second thing I want to say that we have excellent companies in France and we want them to be more and more involved in the world market offering their products, their services in the space sector. And I'm sure that this will help also our growth, employment in France but also the leadership of Europe in terms of space. We are not the biggest, they are bigger countries but we can build because we are agile. because we have, I think, very good technologies and very good services. We can build some win-win partnerships with a lot of countries. I'm thinking of India, of course, I'm speaking to Africa. I was in Nairobi for the Africa Forward Summit and I had to chair a session about space cooperation with the African countries, especially the African Space Agency and France and French companies and the French agencies. And there was really a willingness to do something. So I'm quoting India, I know well India. I think the Indi paper is very important for that and I'm sure you will hear what I'm saying. I'm going to India next December and certainly we will have to speak of the space cooperation. But I'm speaking also of Africa because Africa is the logical partnership for the future between Europe and the African continent. It's logical, it's knowledge, it's historical, it's geographical, it's linked also to especially the special link that exists between France and African countries as the Nairobi summit showed and we have also to work on the space sector.

Q - How about the United Arab Emirates press and (inaudible) ?

Nicolas Forissier - Yeah, it's very important. We have several announcements in the summit and this one is very important. I was discussing also with the chairman of (inaudible). He was announcing the sign this morning, very important agreement also. So this shows that there is something which is moving forward, which is working. And it shows also that when we think European, we go further together and I'm very much working on that. This is also why Benjamin Hadad as the European minister, my colleague, is very much present here because cooperation between the European countries. (inaudible) The union is necessary and important as you say we also see that space is very important in terms of security cooperation in terms of security and geopolitical (inaudible).

Q - But how about technological transfers there in the Middle East? Because I know that Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE are quite interested to get those technologies from Europe in their countries. So is France open for this kind of operation?

Nicolas Forissier - I think that all our partners, especially in the Middle East, because I have been discussing these topics many times, especially in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in the Emirates, they perfectly understand that a win-win partnership supposes that we can keep, if we (inaudible) technology, a part of our secret. Otherwise, it doesn't work. But of course, we also have to be open to be in the confidence of the public and to open public. So it's a subtle, if I may say so, (inaudible). It's always been the discussion that they are not asking us to transfer everything. They just want to build a win-win partnership. So this means that we agree to transfer part of our know-how, of our technology, especially when it has to be built in the country. But not everything, otherwise it wouldn't be a partnership. And this wouldn't help us to go further, to develop, to have more R&D. This is also part of the partnership. I think that with our friends from the Middle East countries, Honestly, this is the way we understand things together. That's my feeling. I'm very optimistic. No, I think it's because it's upcoming trip.

(Inaudible) I will spend a very long time in... I've been 14 times in India. 

Q - Which other cities are you expecting?

Nicolas Forissier - I visited India (inaudible) But I want also to go to Grenada, to Chennai. And I normally have to go to Chennai.

Q - On sait que pour la France, la force traditionnelle, c'est d'avoir des chercheurs qui viennent du public. C'est ça qui a construit la capacité de la France dans l'agenda spatial. Aujourd'hui, avec les budgets de la recherche qui ne sont plus les mêmes qu'autrefois, est-ce que vous êtes confiant dans la capacité du privé à prendre le relais et à financer la recherche et le développement d'une manière aussi puissante que l'État le faisait par le passé ?

Nicolas Forissier - D'abord, moi j'ai toujours, alors ça je vous réponds, c'est plutôt à titre personnel, mais c'est mon analyse des choses, j'ai toujours été convaincue que nous devions beaucoup plus développer les partenariats entre le public et le privé. La recherche publique a toute sa raison d'être. Elle est historique, comme vous l'avez rappelé, elle est absolument nécessaire, elle est fondamentale. C'est une partie de ce qu'est la France. Mais on doit être capable, sereinement, avec un cadre clair, de développer des cofinancements avec des groupes privés, de développer des partenariats entre les équipes publiques et privées. Pour aller plus loin, ce qui compte, c'est la réussite. Ce qui compte, c'est de mettre toutes ces forces en commun. Alors, je sais bien qu'il y a des préventions dans ce domaine, que la France, c'est vrai, dans le domaine du spatial, mais c'est vrai dans plein d'autres domaines : on peut parler de l’agroalimentaire que je connais bien. On a du mal à construire ça. Moi, je pense qu'il faut qu'on le développe. Et c'est en tout cas ma position. Après, je le dis, y compris en comparant avec ce qui peut se passer dans d'autres pays du monde, pas seulement aux Etats-Unis, mais dans plein de pays. Et ça, on ne fait pas assez la comparaison. Ce serait intéressant de le faire en matière de partenariat public-privé dans la recherche. Il y a plein de pays, je pense que vous pouvez prendre l'Australie, la Nouvelle-Zélande, les pays d'Asie-Pacifique, ils sont dans cette logique-là. Ils vont beaucoup plus vite, beaucoup plus loin. Ça ne veut pas dire qu'il n'y a pas de supériorité d'un secteur par rapport à l'autre, du privé par rapport au public, ou l'inverse. Il faut qu'on trouve des complémentarités qui se font dans le respect et qui permettent d'aller plus loin et de trouver des financements que peut-être l'État.