China selects two Pakistanis for astronaut training to take part in its space station

Beijing: Two Pakistani candidates have been selected as the first foreign astronauts for China's space mission training, a government announcement said here on Wednesday.

The two Pakistanis, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud will come to China soon as reserve astronauts for training, China Manned Space Agency said in a statement.

After completing all training and evaluations, one of them will participate in a space mission as a payload specialist, becoming the first foreign astronaut on board the Tiangong space station.

The first selection of foreign astronauts for China's manned space program was completed in early April, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Last year, China announced plans to send an astronaut from its all-weather ally Pakistan as its first foreign guest to its space station, currently orbiting 400 km above the Earth.   The agreement to send the Pakistani astronaut was signed by the China Manned Space Agency and Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission at a ceremony attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad in February last year.

The agreement included bilateral efforts to select and train Pakistani astronauts and then send some of them to China's Tiangong space station, which has been in orbit for nearly five years.

China has been launching satellites for Pakistan for the past few years to help its close ally.

The Chinese space station is regarded as a rival to Russia's international space station Mir, currently in orbit.  China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that China's space programme is manned by its military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA).