![A GLONASS [Global Navigation Satellite System] satellite mock-up on display at the exhibition Space -- Elections -- Telecommunications - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/101725/42/1017254231_0:155:3072:1892_600x0_80_0_0_d6588a6491e0869ca74492291761707e.jpg "A GLONASS [Global Navigation Satellite System] satellite mock-up on display at the exhibition Space -- Elections -- Telecommunications")
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kravchenko, who also chairs the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Youth Council, singled out projects relating to the joint use of GLONASS and joint manufacturing of the system's encode/decode modules as areas of particular interest.
"Our countries can collaborate on a number of projects," Denis Kravchenko, deputy general director of the United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC), told Sputnik.
Designed to supplant the US Global Positioning System (GPS), the GLONASS network currently fields 28 satellites, 24 of which are operational.
India has four navigation satellites known as IRNSS of its own. IRNS-1A, its first satellite, was launched in 2013. In 2015 the Indian Space Agency expects to launch an additional three satellites to round out its network.
SCO was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Its leaders submitted a joint declaration last year opposing a space arms race.
