The U.S. has updated a decades-old science and technology agreement with China to reflect their growing rivalry for technological dominance. The new agreement, signed Friday after many months of negotiations, has a narrower scope and additional safeguards to minimize the risk to national security.

The State Department said the agreement sustains intellectual property protections, establishes new guardrails to protect the safety and security of researchers and “advances U.S. interests through newly established and strengthened provisions on transparency and data reciprocity.”

It covers only basic research and does not facilitate the development of critical and emerging technologies, the department said. This includes technologies related to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which are considered crucial for economic strength and military supremacy.

The first such agreement was signed in January 1979 when the two countries established diplomatic ties to counter the influence of the Soviet Union and when China severely lagged behind the U.S. and other Western nations in science and technology.

The agreement was last extended in 2018, and given temporary extensions last year and this year to allow for negotiations. Washington had come to view the agreement as failing to reflect the shift in U.S.-China relations and China’s emergence as a heavyweight in the field. The new agreement extends cooperation for five years.