China's space station will welcome its first foreign astronaut in the next few years, after China and Pakistan on Friday signed a cooperation agreement on the selection and training of astronauts.

Xinhua news agency said China and Pakistan would spend roughly a year selecting the Pakistani astronauts, who would be trained in China before joining Chinese counterparts on the Tiangong space station for short-term missions "within the next few years".

In the presence of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the agreement was signed by Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, and Muhammad Yousuf Khan, chairman of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission at the Prime Minister's House.

As a country with historically close ties to China, Pakistan has in recent years sought to improve its own space capabilities by participating in Chinese initiatives.

Last May, Pakistan was one of several countries that placed payloads aboard the Chang'e-6 lunar probe, which ended up making China the first country to successfully retrieve samples from the moon's far side.

Completed in late 2022, Tiangong can house a maximum of three astronauts for months at an orbital altitude of up to 450 km.

It has a designed operational lifespan of at least 15 years. (Agencies)