PAIRI DAIZA, a zoo in Brugelette in west Belgium’s Hainaut province, announced Friday the birth of a set of panda twins.

The birth of one male cub, 160 grams, and one female cub, 150 grams, comes as no great surprise since mother Hao Hao had been successfully inseminated last April by male companion Xing Hui.

However, the reproduction cycle for female pandas is long and, often, highly unpredictable.

This is the 2nd and 3rd birth of giant panda at Pairi Daiza after the birth of Tian Bao, a male, on June 2, 2016, a historic first for Belgium.

It also presents new hope for the preservation of this species classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation Nature.

“The birth of the two giant pandas bears new fruit for Sino-Belgian friendship, which symbolizes that relation between our two countries continues to blossom. I am convinced that, thanks to the joint efforts of our two sides, the global partnership of Sino-Belgian friendship and cooperation will continue to deepen and widen, bringing more tangible benefits to the people of China and Belgium,” said Cao Zhongming, Chinese ambassador to Belgium.

For Eric Domb, president and founder of Pairi Daiza, the “double birth is wonderful news for this extraordinary species but today still threatened! We are proud, as a zoo, to collaborate in the rescue of the giant panda.”

Both Hao Hao and Xing Hui were loaned by the Chinese Government to Belgium for a duration of 15 years.

When they arrived aboard a specially chartered DHL plane and escorted to Pairi Daiza in 2014, over 2,000 people gathered to have a glimpse of them.

Since their arrival, Belgium has experienced a panda mania, and Xing Hui and Hao Hao continue to occupy media attention to this day.

Considered two ambassadors of friendship and sincerity of the Chinese people towards the Belgian people, Hao Hao and Xing Hui quickly became a major attraction of the Pairi Daiza zoo.  (Xinhua)