STORY: UN space chief hails "strong" cooperation with China
SHOOTING TIME: April 16, 2024
DATELINE: April 20, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:00
LOCATION: Vienna
CATEGORY: SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the headquarters of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
2. SOUNDBITE (English): AARTI HOLLA-MAINI, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

STORYLINE:

Aarti Holla-Maini, director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), has hailed China's achievements in space exploration and its close cooperation with her office in leveraging space technologies to benefit all humankind.
   
Holla-Maini made the remarks in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua before she heads to China later this week to attend a series of space events.

SOUNDBITE (English): AARTI HOLLA-MAINI, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
"China is a well respected spacefaring nation, all the way from its launcher and its satellite navigation system BeiDou, to more recent developments like the lunar station, which is coming up, and the China space station. It's a very well respected nation, and that's why it's very important that I learn more about it.
Whether it's collaborating on access to space for all like the examples you gave with the space station, whether it's collaborating on capacity building and driving resilience in the region, through UN-SPIDER, or whether it's to do with training and education, I'm really proud of the fact that we have a strong collaboration with China. And now I'm going there, we will be also looking at what more we can do together."
   
In June 2023, Holla-Maini took the helm at UNOOSA, a UN agency dedicated to promoting international cooperation in the peaceful use and exploration of space.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Vienna.
(XHTV)