In short, the world of Valerian is one in which the [docking of the Soyuz and the Apollo][1] heralded a new era of international cooperation rather than a further twenty years of Cold War. A large international co-project was evidently announced and the Alpha Space station was built in Earth orbit by the Russians *and* the Americans.

> *What happened in 1998, at Alpha Space Station in orbit around the
> blue-green world, was not merely two nations meeting. When the
> European Hermes spaceplane, proposed in the same year as that first
> historic handshake, arrived to dock at Alpha, it represented a
> coalition of nations. Space was no longer the province of a few tiny
> humans, but was rapidly evolving to belong to humanity.*
> 
> *The space station grew as time went by. In the year 2019, China’s
> massive Tiangong-3 spaceship was warmly welcomed when it came to take
> its place at Alpha. The captain of the Alpha Space Station, one
> thirty-year-old James Crowford, enthusiastically greeted his Chinese
> counterpart Wuang Hu, who himself could not seem to stop smiling.
> Later historians would mark this moment as the end of international
> tension, and the beginning of what was the first Great Age of human
> cooperation.*

> <sub><sup>[Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Official Movie Novelization][2]</sub></sup>

As to *why* Besson chose the images and audio, the intention was to show a happy and hopeful view of human history.

> **Crave: *Speaking of Alpha, your opening sequence in Valerian is the origin of
> Alpha, but it also plays like a mission statement. It’s all about how
> science and science fiction can bring about this message of hope for
> the future. Was that your intent, or did you just want to do a cool
> music video?***
> 
> **Besson:** [Laughs.] *No, no. It was very, very important and it was an idea that
> I had for a long time. I wanted to start with some footage from 1972.
> I want to start from who we are, okay? In 1972, Americans and Russians
> are able to smile to each other and shake their hands. And we forgot!
> It starts well. Everything was well until six months ago!* [Laughs.]
> 
> *But it’s very important to show that these humans, no matter where
> they come from… okay, here is Russia and America, but they’re so happy
> to meet! They’re so happy to shake their hands. And then after we see
> the Chinese and they’re happy too. And then we see the alien. We see
> everyone and then the first alien, and we are little nervous when we
> met the first one but we smile and we shake hands. I just love that. I
> just love to see that we are writing our future. So we are we writing
> something so dark? Everything is possible on paper. It’s doesn’t mean
> that we will finally have a world so idealistic, but at least we can
> write it, you know?*

> <sub><sup>[Interview | Luc Besson, ‘Valerian’ and the Science Fiction of Optimism][3]</sub></sup>


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project
  [2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33216612-valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets
  [3]: http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/1301481-interview-luc-besson-valerian-science-fiction-optimism#rcm8cxjgzd0H3Eq6.99