ISLAMABAD – Pakistan India enters into a new space race.
Pakistan has decided to send a human into space… in the exact year thatIndia resolute to do the same with help of Russia.
Fawad Chuadhry, Information minister of Pakistan, has made it public onThursday that the country intends to carry out its first space mission incollaboration with China in 2022, with Prime Minister Imran Khan havingalready approved the plan at federal cabinet meeting.
The Indian proposed deadline is the same year the Pakistani Prime ministerImran Khan hopes to launch the country’s first manned mission to space.
India’s plan means that the two countries, which have been in conflict for75 years, are officially battling it out to be the fourth nation in space.
Fawad Chaudhry said, “an agreement between Pakistan Space and UpperAtmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and a Chinese company has alreadybeen signed”.
It comes ahead of Pakistani PM Khan’s first-ever visit to China on November3, when he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
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The new battlefield has emerged amid renewed tensions between the twoneighboring countries, as the latest efforts to hold talks to guaranteepeace and stability in the region failed yet again.
PM Khan had invited India to hold peace talks on the sidelines of the 73rdUN General Assembly in New York last month.
However, after initially agreeing to it, India backed out last minute,claiming any dialogue would be “meaningless” given the “brutal” killing ofthree of its policemen in the contended region of Kashmir at the hands ofPakistani militants. It further blamed Pakistan for “glorifying terrorists.”
Khan hit back by saying that India’s response was a “negative” one, andthat leadership in New Delhi should “shun arrogance” to enable peace talks.
