The thirteenth Meeting of the United Nations International Committee of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) concluded successfully in Xi’an, Shaanxi on November 9^th, 2018. With Chinese President Jinping Xi’s congratulatory letter, which stated that China is willing to share the BDS achievement with the world and to jointly promote the development of global satellite navigation industry, the Chinese government attached great importance to the meeting.  

Since the opening of the meeting on November 5^th, more than 400 representatives from 16 countries and regions, as well as 16 international organizations, carried out extensive exchanges on 20+ topics of global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) development. A joint providers’ forum statement was released. Calling for joint development of global navigation satellite systems, the statement noted that the major providers should further enhance system compatibility, inter-operability, technology innovation, service transparency as well as cooperation and exchange. The statement further stated that providers would consider to aim at coverage for land, sea, air and space, and performance of high-precision, safe and reliable; to combine satellite navigation solutions with other PNT technologies; to build a comprehensive PNT architecture to fully meet future user PNT service requirements. As a consensus reached by all providers, the statement marks a milestone of achievements. 

Led by Mr. Changfeng Yang, Chief Architect of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, the Chinese delegation participated in this session deeply and thoroughly. The Chinese experts took the positions of the co-chair(s)of the plenary session, provider’s forum, working groups, and sub-working groups. The delegation delivered 28 presentations in different sections of the meeting and recommendations on standardizing GNSS featured services, nurturing deep space navigation capability, and securing satellite de-orbiting. The outcome of the work is noted in the meeting records of the plenary session, provider’s forum and working group meetings. In particular, Chinese delegation’s proposal on nurturing deep space navigation capability has gained attention of all parties. Setting up a space application working group to drive satellite navigation service into   the further and higher earth-moon navigation space is unanimously agreed. 

A technology and culture tour, which included exhibitions on BDS construction and applications, and ancient Chinese navigation, location, timing and astronomical observation technology exemplified by Sinan, was held during the meeting. The attendees also had a live experience on high accuracy lane-level navigation and unmanned aerial vehicle distribution based on the BeiDou Ground-based Augmentation System. All attendees highly rated these activities and stated that hundreds of years’ historical deposition and accumulation on navigation culture and technology resulted in the rapid development of satellite navigation system worldwide. 

With the brilliant and fruitful results, this ICG meeting marks an important milestone in the ICG history, of which the outcome will drive the development of the global satellite navigation industry.