Russian upper house ratifies agreement with China on national satellite systems

MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. The Russian Federation Council’s plenary meeting on Friday has adopted the law to ratify the agreement between the Russian and the Chinese governments on cooperation in using the GLONASS and the BeiDou global national satellite navigation systems for peaceful purposes. The agreement also stipulates deploying stations of these systems on the territories of the two countries. The document was signed in Beijing on November 7, 2018 to ensure compatibility and complementarity of the satellite navigation systems - Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou. Particularly, the parties pledged to deploy measurement stations for GLONASS in China and Beidou in Russia. Moscow and Beijing also agreed to develop and manufacture civil navigation equipment applying these systems, including the development of joint Russian-Chinese and international standards of applying the navigation technologies, used by these satellite systems. The agreement also regulates the issues of cooperation, protecting intellectual property rights, legal and physical protection of property on the territories of the two countries, lifting customs tariffs and taxes on the goods that are delivered in the framework of the agreement. Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities Roscosmos and the Commission on the Chinese Navigation Satellite System are responsible for the implementation of the agreement which is signed for an indefinite period of time. Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, senator Konstantin Kosachev lauded this agreement as an example of the developing and strategic cooperation and partnership between Russia and China. "It is clear that our geopolitical opponents are very envious of this, but the more projects like this we have, the more successful and advanced they will be and stronger our position will be," he said. Read more