That China opens its future space station to the world will reinforce international cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space, said Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Simonetta Di Pippo, on Monday.

China Space Station (CSS), expected to be launched by 2019, and complete and brought into operation by 2022, will be the world's first space station that is open for cooperation with all UN member states.

In cooperation with the UNOOSA, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) is to utilize the CSS to promote international cooperation in manned space flight and space exploration, providing flight experiment and space application opportunities on board the space station for UN member states.

"This is an agreement which will allow the entire world to use, for scientific purposes, the China Space Station when it will be ready," Di Pippo said.

"It's the first time it is open to all member states," she hailed in an interview with Xinhua.

The space station could carry laboratories for scientific experiments. All UN member states, even research entities could apply to use it for scientific research, China would help launch related facilities to the station and operate them.

"Opening up of China Space Station, China's facility to everyone will reinforce international cooperation for the peaceful use of outer space," said Di Pippo.

"This is really an outstanding project, it's showing that China is really trying to open up the possibility for everyone in the world to use the facility that China is developing," the UNOOSA chief noted.

"The space program of China is not only well established but one of the most important in the world," she added.

She believes the project is also a breakthrough for the cooperation between the UNOOSA and the Chinese government.

It's the first project the UNOOSA cooperates with a member state's space station, while offering equal opportunities for all the UN member states with great transparency.

"China is currently the first contributor to our activities in terms of voluntary contributions, this is quite important, it's a sign of the strong interest of China of collaborating with us, opening up to the entire world the possibility of utilize your facilities," said the UNOOSA chief, who said she hopes to see more cooperation projects to come.

"This will even be reinforced in the future," she said.

In addition, she said, "The more we could support the cooperation between countries, or between entities the more we contribute to what we call space diplomacy."

Promoting cooperation in the peaceful use of the outer space is becoming an important consensus of the international community, with more and more UN member states joining the UNOOSA over years.

Di Pippo, who is quite familiar with China's space project, says China's contribution will boost this trend.

"I believe that China's program is really well conceived," she said,noting that her office is also discussing with China over potential cooperation in the future, especially on China's program for a return to the Moon.(Xinhua)