At the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the French space agency (CNES) in the presence of Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and also German Aerospace Coordinator, and Thierry Mandon, French Minister of State for Higher Education and Research, renewed their 2002 cooperation agreement on 2 June 2016. The agreement was signed by Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the DLR Executive Board, Gerd Gruppe, Member of the DLR Executive Board responsible for the German Space Administration, and CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall. Germany and France cooperate closely in numerous projects; one example is the small satellite mission MERLIN.