The heads of Russia's Federal Space Agency and China's Satellite Navigation Office signed on Friday a joint statement on the joint exploitation of the Chinese BeiDou system with Russia's Glonass navigation system.

The document was signed by Igor Komarov and Wang Li in Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping witnessed the signing.

The joint statement follows the cooperation agreement in the field of satellite navigation that was signed by the two countries in February.

Last year, China's aerospace officials said that the country's global navigation system will be fully operational by 2020.

China plans to almost double the number of its satellites, orbiting the Earth, to bring the total number to 35 within five years as Beijing looks to become the third country, after the United States and Russia, to operate a global navigation system.

Russia's Glonass project was launched in 1993 to rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS).

As of now, the Glonass network comprises 28 satellites, 24 of which are fully operational, to provide real-time positioning and speed data for objects around the globe.

Source: Sputnik News