Russia and China are to cooperate closely on moon exploration, and the two nations could sign space cooperation agreements by the end of the year.Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said that Chinese experts had shown a strong interest in Russia's lunar experience.
The agency's website quotes Perminov as saying, "Russia is ready for close cooperation with China in the field.. this is a serious and quite promising field of cooperation. In the past the Russian-Chinese cooperation have been mostly limited to the sales of Russian equipment, but now we are considering the development and implementation of joint projects."Perminov said that the two nations had formalized their plans for the moon research in a specific action plan approved in June 2005 and followed up on that with several expert meetings. The latest meeting of Russian and Chinese space officials took place last week.
