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China’s BeiDou and Russian GLONASS sign new deal to rival America’s GPS satellite navigation
- Latest satellite navigation systems deal among 16 signed as Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping in Beijing
- Agreement promises to ensure ‘complementarity of the global navigation satellite systems in terms of system timescales’, in a step up from a 2018 deal
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China and Russia have agreed to coordinate their satellite navigation systems as the two countries further solidify their partnership to rival the US-owned GPS.
This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed “unprecedented” close ties with China at a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
A total of 16 deals were confirmed during the meeting, including one for 10 billion cubic metres (353 billion cubic feet) of Russian gas to be supplied to China per year via a new pipeline.
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An agreement was also signed between the operators of the Russian high-altitude satellite system GLONASS and China’s BeiDou, “on cooperation in the field of ensuring the complementarity of the global navigation satellite systems in terms of system timescales”, according to the document list issued by the Kremlin.
The details of the agreement were not disclosed. But it follows and further develops a 2018 agreement between the two governments to shape a framework for the two systems joining forces.
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