ASTANA, March 22. /TASS/. Space agencies of Kazakhstan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates have signed a protocol on expanding trilateral space cooperation at a meeting in Baikonur, the Kazinform international news agency reported on Thursday.

The protocol was signed by Kazakhstan’s Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov, Director-General of the Roscosmos state space corporation Igor Komarov and the UAE’s Minister of Higher Education Ahmad Abdullah Belhoul Al Falasi, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UAE Space Agency.

The sides agreed on setting up a joint working group in April 2018 for considering potential projects at the Baikonur spaceport.

According to the news agency, the trilateral meeting was held at the Baikonur spaceport ahead of the launch of the Soyuz MS-08 manned spacecraft with an expedition to the International Space Station on Wednesday.