Caracas: Venezuela will send its first astronaut to the Moon as part of a Chinese mission under scientific and technological cooperation with China, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday.
“The symbol of the work of the committee on scientific, technological, industrial and aerospace cooperation [of the China-Venezuela commission] will sooner or later be the arrival of the first Venezuelan to the Moon aboard a Chinese spacecraft. Yesterday, we discussed with China’s aerospace authorities that Venezuelan youth will soon come here to train to become astronauts in Chinese schools,” Maduro told the closing event of the 17th China-Venezuela High-Level Joint Commission in Beijing.
The president added that the results of the work of the commission and the Venezuelan authorities’ state visit to China allow for the beginning of a new post-COVID-19 stage in the relations between the two countries, meeting modern challenges and marked by growth and joint development.
Maduro added that cited new agreements on Venezuelan food exports to China, cooperation in critical communications infrastructure, digital economy and tourism development among key bilateral achievements between the countries.
The president also said that an agreement to link Venezuela and China by air would be signed, saying that Venezuela’s Conviasa air carrier was ready to launch direct flights to China “so that the Chinese will come to Venezuela – to our beaches, to our jungles, to our mountains.” Maduro noted that tourism, air traffic, the development of the satellite industry and the country’s participation in the project of an international station on the Moon are a part of “this stage of our relationship”
