The 23rd China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting was held at Great Hall of the People. Witnessed by His Excellency Li Keqiang, Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, and His Excellency Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev, Premier of the Russia Federation, Wang Zhaoyao, Chairman of the China Satellite Navigation Committee, and Rogozin, General Manager of Roscosmos, signed “the Agreement on Peaceful Use of BeiDou and Glonass Between People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation” ( "Cooperation Agreement" ). It will provide a legal and organizational guarantee for the large-scale cooperation in the satellite navigation field between the two countries.
The China-Russia satellite navigation cooperation has been highly valued by the Chinese and Russian leaders sine 2012. In January, 2014, the China-Russia Commission on Important Strategic Satellite Navigation Cooperation ( “Commission” ) was established, under the framework of the China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting Committee. Currently, the Commission is co-chaired by WANG Zhaoyao, Chairman of the China Satellite Navigation Committee, and Rogozin, General Manager of Roscosmos. The Commission conducted 5 meetings and established 4 working groups in the past 4 years. Moreover, China and Russia signed the joint statements on the system compatibility and interoperability as well as the application development between BeiDou and Glonass. A monitoring and assessment services platform for these two systems has been operational. The phase one of the joint project on testing the two systems performance in the Belt and Road region, has completed. Other projects, including application of the cross-border transportation and the joint R&D on GNSS chips, have also been propelled. A list of ten key cooperative projects were formed. The all-round development and deepening of satellite navigation cooperation between the two countries have achieved phased and pragmatic results.
The signing of the Cooperation Agreement will surely achieve the maximum complementarity and integrated development of the two systems, and promote the pragmatic development of the joint projects. It is an important milestone to mark the new stage of cooperation between BeiDou and GLONASS.
