Let’s work together in space sector: China to India

NEW DELHI: China has sought partnership with India in the civilian space sector, in the backdrop of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s achievements including this week’s launch of Chandrayaan-2.

India's space exploration provides more room for international space cooperation and China and India can seize the chance to strengthen their cooperation in this regard, and promote mutual trust and economic exchanges over the development of cuttingedge technologies, state-run Chinese media the Global Times said.

But the paper cautioned that China has various tools to use as countermeasures if India's space ambitions “go astray” and trigger an arms race between the two countries. The two countries currently do not have any cooperation in the space sector.


India’s traditional partners in this area are Russia (the erstwhile Soviet Union) and France. India is also partnering the US and Japan in its endeavours in space. A few years ago, India launched a satellite for South Asia minus Pakistan and has also sent satellites to the space for Southeast Asian countries.

Countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and even Europe have expressed willingness to either take Indian expertise or partner with India in space programmes.

“India aims to develop its launch and exploration capabilities as a part of its effort to help modernise its military. Although India's space plans have largely focused on civilian applications, space technology development will enable a full range of military applications in areas such as reconnaissance, communications, navigation and missile manufacturing,” reported Hu Weijia in an article titled ‘Space offers new scope for China-India cooperation’, published on Wednesday.