Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) and National Remote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC) will sign seven contracts soon, said a GIU official. The cooperation between China and European Union (EU) on satellite navigation is “crucially important” and expected to have a very successful future, said executive director Rainer Grohe in a press release.

According to Zhang Guocheng, acting director of NRSCC, the seven projects in the segments of space, ground and applications will be contracted to Chinese companies and organizations by the end of July. According to a cooperation agreement signed by the NRSCC and the Galileo Joint Undertaking last October, China pledged to invest in research and development on space technology, ground equipment and application systems for the Galileo Programme. As the first non-EU partner for the programme, China agreed to invest 200 million euros, including 70 million euros in the first phase of the cooperation.
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Negotiations on Ukraine’s paticipation in Europe’s satellite radio navigation programme finally reached approval. The agreement was initialled in Kiev by François Lamoureux, Director- General for Energy and Transport at the European Commission, and by Oleh Shamshul, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A first agreement between the EU and Ukraine in the field of civil aviation was also initialed. The Galileo agreement initialed with Ukraine provides for co-operative activities on satellite navigation in a wide range of sectors, particularly in science and technology, industrial manufacturing, service and market development, as well as standardisation, frequency and certification. It also represents the first step towards the extension of EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) to Ukraine and the participation of the country in the programme through a stake in the Galileo Joint Undertaking.
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India is likely to sign an agreement soon to participate in Galileo project. According to the official, India, with its vast geographical area, stands to benefit significantly from the Galileo project that will comprise a constellation of 30 satellites. India had agreed to participate in the Galileo programme at the end of the fourth India-EU Summit in 2003. www.hindustantimes.com