Rogozin: Russia will suspend U.S. GPS stations' work on its territory from June
MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will suspend the work of U.S. GPS stations located on its territory, if no agreement is reached to set up GLONASS ground stations on U.S. territory, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told the press.
"We are suspending the work of these stations in Russian territory from June 1," he said.
Rogozin said that the American stations were deployed in Russia in line with the agreements signed in 1993 and 2011. "In accordance with these agreements, eleven GPS stations are located in ten Russian regions," he said.
Rogozin also announced that Russia and the United States have time until May 31 to negotiate the deployment of Russian GLONASS stations in the United States. "A working group has been formed, which is comprised of representatives of the federal space agency Roscosmos, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Foreign Ministry. We are starting talks with the United States and we reserve three months - until the end of the summer - to complete the talks. We hope solutions will be found that will help restore proportional cooperation. If no solutions are found the work of these stations will be stopped finally on September 1," Rogozin said.
Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko told reporters that the federal space agency had sent a package of documents to the United States required to deploy ground GLONASS stations in U.S. territory.
"Readiness has been expressed in narrow-format discussions to consider the possibility of locating these stations in U.S. territory. We sent out a package of documents to be studied. If no constructive solution is found, adequate measures will naturally be taken with respect to the U.S. stations in our territory," Ostapenko said.