International Cooperation

Australia
The United States and Australia initiated a cooperative relationship on GPS and GPS augmentations through a Joint Delegation Statement signed in 2007. The cooperation expands upon existing efforts to ensure interoperability between GPS and Australia's Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS).

China
Since 2007, the U.S. Air Force has held discussions with China's Compass program to ensure radio frequency compatibility with GPS. These operator-to-operator meetings have occurred under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The United States discusses broader cooperation issues with China during meetings of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG). The United States is interested in engaging in further bilateral discussions with China on civil GNSS services and applications.

Europe
The United States and the European Union and its member states have been close partners in the area of satellite navigation since 2004, when the parties signed a historic agreement establishing cooperation between GPS and Europe's planned Galileo system. The cooperation aims to ensure that GPS and Galileo will be interoperable at the user level for the benefit of civil users around the world. The cooperation is also intended to maintain fair trade in the global satellite navigation market.

The GPS-Galileo Agreement established four working groups for cooperation on:

Radio frequency compatibility and interoperability;
Trade and civil applications;
Design and development of the next generation of systems; and
Security issues related to GPS and Galileo.