Pakistan PM greets China on successful Shenzhou-9 mission

ISLAMABAD, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has sent a message of greetings to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the successful Shenzhou-9 mission, said the PM office on Thursday.

In his message, the prime minister said "My special praise is for the scientists who are involved in this project, especially the three astronauts who have created history by manually docking the spacecraft with the Tiangong-1 space lab module. Their professionalism and dedication is praiseworthy."

"We are proud that China is making rapid strides in the development of space technology which would bring enormous benefits for the whole world, especially the developing nations," said the prime minister.

He said China has always achieved in the shortest possible time what others have failed and the launch and docking of Shenzhou-9 spacecraft is one such example.

He said Pakistan would like to forge closer space cooperation with China and learn from its experience.

"We are thankful to China for helping us build and launch PAKSAT-IR satellite. Hopefully, with your support we would be able to launch a Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite soon," said Pervez Ashraf in the message to his Chinese counterpart.