Satellite navigation pact agreed on with Russia

China's Beidou system will control 70 to 80 percent of the domestic satellite navigation industry by 2020, and the value of the Beidou navigation industry is predicted to reach 400 billion yuan ($65.3 billion) by that time, according to a report released in September by China's National Development and Reform Commission.

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The main goal for the industry's long-term development is to promote applications in civil service sectors.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia believes prospects for cooperation between the Russian Glonass system and the Chinese navigation system are good.

"Our system is more suitable for northern, polar latitudes. The Chinese system is more southerly. Their complementarity would result in the biggest and most powerful competitor to any navigation system," Rogozin said.

To shorten the technical gap between Russia and the West, Rogozin said his government is eager to expand cooperation with China in other high-tech fields such as aerospace, satellite navigation and mapping, as well as establishing a manufacturing base for wireless electronics.

"In the future, manned space flights, observational cosmology, lunar and Mars explorations can also be jointly conducted by the two sides," Rogozin said.

Because of Washington's failure to allow deployment of Glonass stations in the US, Russia suspended the operation of all American GPS sites in its territory starting from June.