India, E.U. collaborate on global satellite system

Monday, 03 November 2003, 20:30 IST
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LONDON: India's engagement with the European Union (E.U.) is set to reach new heights, particularly in the field of science and technology. India is to invest 210 million pounds in the E.U. Galileo global satellite system, a network of 30 orbiting satellites catering to high technology industries that require pinpoint accuracy. Details of India's participation in the project are expected to be finalised at an E.U.-India summit later this month. According to The Telegraph, the E.U. project is seen as a bid to challenge American supremacy in space. China is also investing 140 million pounds in the project, according to Loyola de Palacio, the E.U. transport commissioner. Both Beijing and New Delhi are upgrading their offices in the E.U. According to Member of European Parliament Nirj Deva: "Brussels will be more important than London, Paris and Berlin once the E.U. gets its own foreign minister next year." Washington is reported to have objected to China's involvement. A policy paper published in Beijing in October said the E.U. would soon overtake the U.S. and Japan as China's main trade and investment partner. Britain and Holland have been wary of the venture, fearing it may be an exorbitant exercise to promote French anti-Americanism and E.U. superpower ambitions. China and the E.U. signed the deal Friday at a summit in Beijing, marking a new intimacy between Brussels and China. The Galileo technology is described as the "internet" of global navigation, and is used for air traffic control, mobile telephones and even police surveillance, but inevitably has a military aspect. The Telegraph reported that Washington feared it could interfere with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) military frequencies, and quoted experts as saying the real U.S. worry was E.U. efforts to set up a rival technology bloc.
Source: IANS