China and the United States have agreed to extend the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement for five years, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said on Friday, renewing a decades-old commitment to cooperate in scientific research.

The pact had expired on Aug. 27.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether this agreement would have any stabilizing effect on Sino-U.S. ties.

The agreement, signed when Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties in 1979 and renewed about every five years since, has been hailed as a stabilizing force for the two countries’ relations, with collaboration in areas from atmospheric and agricultural science to basic research in physics and chemistry.

It laid the foundation for a boom in academic and commercial exchanges.

Those exchanges helped China grow into a technology and military powerhouse, but concerns about Beijing’s theft of U.S. scientific and commercial achievements have prompted questions about whether the agreement should continue.