Friday, May 13 2005 20:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: India and Russia are set to boost cooperation in space, including the launching of Russian navigational satellites with the help of Indian booster rockets, a senior space official in Moscow said.

"Expressing their desire to expand bilateral space cooperation India and Russia have signed two agreements, including on launching of GLONASS navigational satellites with the help of Indian booster rockets," Deputy Chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Alexander Medvedchikov today (May 13, 2005) said.

He said the experts of the two countries are working on the legal framework of the Indo-Russian space cooperation.

"Meetings of the technical experts are taking place, but it is too early to say that all the issues have been resolved," Medvedchikov said at a news conference in Moscow.

During President Vladimir Putin's India visit last December, Roskosmos and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) signed an agreement on joint use of Soviet-era global navigational satellite system 'GLONASS' by making it fully functional, involving launching new Russian satellites from the Indian launch pads with the help of Indian vehicles.

Last month the Cabinet committee on political affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ratified the GLONASS deal with Russia, which would end the dependency on the Pentagon-controlled global positioning system (GPS) Navstar.

This has crucial significance for the Defence capability of the country in view of manipulation of GPS transmission by the Pentagon during Balkan war against Yugoslavia and US-led strike at Iraq, when GPS receivers in the area were made defunct.

Medvedchikov also lauded the achievements of Indian space programme.

"The Indian space programme is moving ahead in a very good tempo. Their Space budget is equal to Russia's, if not more, we can only 'envy' our Indian colleagues and in some cases even learn from them," he added.