Russia
has inaugurated a new satellite station
in Nicaragua
that will operate its GLONASS
system, designed to rival America’s GPS network, according to officials.
Igor Komarov,
the head of Russia’s
space agency Roscosmos,
on Thursday hailed the moment for opening “a new page in this history,” Nicaragua’s
state-run news website 19 de Julio
reported.
The station built in Nicaragua’s
southern town of Nejapa
under a 2015 agreement would receive “high precision” satellite signals that
would help in times of disaster, support navigation of boats and ships in the
country, and assist Managua’s fight against drug traffickers, he said.
It is the first GLONASS
station in Central America,
he added.
Nicaragua,
presided over by the former Marxist guerrilla
Daniel Ortega,
is critical of US policy but maintains trade relations. It has good political
ties with Russia, China,
Iran and Venezuela.
GLONASS,
which stands for Global Navigation
Satellite System, is the second-biggest satellite positioning system
after the US Global
Positioning System. Both have multiple civilian and military uses.
Ortega’s son and presidential advisor Laureano Ortega
attended the ceremony on Thursday. He said the GLONASS
station was “a strategic project” between Nicaragua
and Russia.
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