Photo: Xinhua

The 14th Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) of the UN kicked off in Bangalore, India on Sunday and will conclude on Friday. 

Led by Yang Changfeng, the Chief Architect of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), the Chinese delegation with more than 50 representatives will participate in the summit. A BDS system update is expected to be presented.

The meeting is hosted by Indian Space Research Organization. 

Representatives of the global and regional satellite navigation system providers, including China, the US, Russia, European Union, Japan and Indian, ICG member states Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, and the ICG associate member or observers status holders such as  International GNSS Service Organization (IGS), Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, International Aeronautical Association (FAI), and invited observers such as UN Regional Centers for Space Science and Technology Education, Korea and New Zealand, also participated the meeting. 

Delegates will exchange views on compatibility and interoperability, high-precision applications, and other satellite navigation topics, according to a statement China's navigation satellite authorities sent to the Global Times on Monday.

The Chinese delegation will participate in discussions related to the  construction, operation, application promotion, and international cooperation since BDS began providing global services in 2018, it said. 

Chinese appeals and solutions, aimed at mid-orbit satellite search and rescue, space debris disposal, precise point positioning, and expanding application areas will be presented. Chinese participation is expected to contribute the country's wisdom for the development of satellite navigation systems, and provide the Chinese plans for global information and intelligent development, it noted.

As BDS takes on a more important role in the field of satellite navigation, substantial progress has been achieved in cooperation and exchanges with other navigation satellite systems. For example, China and Russia have already entered into a formal cooperation agreement.

Signal compatibility and interoperability between China's BDS and US GPS, and frequency coordination between China and Europe have made advances.  

Having successfully hosted the ICG-13 last year in Xi'an, capital of Southwest China's Shaanxi Province, China has since held the Second China-Arab States BDS Cooperation Forum and the First China-Central Asia BSD Cooperation Forum. 

China is has already begun preparations for the Satellite Navigation Forum for the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the official statement said.

Before 2020, China will launch another cluster of MEO satellites for the BDS-3 system, which will the final group for the system and complete core constellation deployment, it revealed. 

Next year it is expected that BDS will possess full operational capability. As an important Chinese public service space infrastructure that is open to the world, BDS will insist on following the service concept of "the China's BDS, the world's BDS, and the top-class BDS," for the construction and development for the system, according to the statement.