PM Modi congratulates Japan on successful moon landing

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on Tokyo’s successful moon landing, saying India’s ISRO is keen to collaborate with Japanese agency JAXA in the field of space exploration. Japan made history on Saturday by becoming only the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, a mission operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday said Prime Minister Modi congratulated PM Kishida for the first soft moon landing of JAXA. He further said that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) looks forward to collaborating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in space exploration.

Japan’s smart lander (Slim) landed on the lunar surface near an equatorial crater, marking a major milestone in the country’s space exploration.

Modi posted on X on Saturday night: “Congratulations to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and everyone at JAXA on achieving Japan’s first soft Moon landing. India looks forward to our cooperation in space exploration between ISRO and JAXA.

Other countries that have made soft landings on the Moon are India, the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)