Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov told Interfax that ways of such bilateral cooperation were explored during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing at Putin's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin.

Russia's Aviation Space Agency told Interfax that Glonass, which is a twin of the American GPS system, is able to determine the exact position of an object anywhere on the globe, determine speed, and check time with an error of as little as one millionth of a second. The system has important military applications and is especially important in delivering pinpoint military strikes.

The U.S. system is currently the most popular system of its kind and is used for military and civilian purposes throughout the world.

However, the U.S. government restricts the use of the signal and reserves the right to cut off its availability if dictated by national security interests.

While China has showed interest in having Glonass terminals installed at airports and on planes, Russia has invited China to participate in financing a group of Glonass satellites.

The entire system should incorporate 24 satellites. However, there are currently just 14 satellites available, and only nine are fully operating.

The system requires 1.5 billion rubles a year to maintain. However, equipment is aging due to lack of funding and satellites are starting to fail. Thus, new satellites must be launched to restore the system.