BEIJING, Feb 13 (APP):China’s domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System, by now, has covered nearly 30 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, including Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia, the office noted.
China launched a pair of navigation satellites yesterday afternoon, moving closer to building a global network.
The 28th and 29th satellites in the domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System, one of the nation’s largest space programs, were lifted atop a Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
They are the fifth and sixth in the third-generation of Beidou satellite. They will conduct in-orbit tests and then be connected with the previous four third-generation Beidou satellites, said a statement from the China Satellite Navigation Office.
In November, the first two third-generation Beidou satellites were launched at the Xichang center. In January, another two were lifted at the same center.
Beidou is the world’s fourth space-based navigation system, following GPS by the United States, GLONASS by Russia and Galileo by the European Union.
Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite was placed in space, 33 satellites have been launched for the network. The Beidou system began providing positioning, navigation, timing and message services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012.
By the end of this year, 18 third-generation Beidou satellites would be placed into orbit and they will work with the earlier generations to cover all nations involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, the satellite office said.
The Belt and Road Initiative, a far-reaching development plan proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which will link China with Europe through Central and Western Asia, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which stretches from southern China to Southeast Asia and farther to Africa. The initiative is estimated to benefit about 4.4 billion people in 65 nations, according to the government.
By now, Beidou has covered nearly 30 countries involved in the initiative, including Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia, the office noted.
In 2019 and 2020, China will send six third-generation Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbits, three to inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and two to geostationary orbits.
According to plans from the satellite office, the network will be made up of 35 satellites before the end of 2020-several now in orbit will be decommissioned by then-to give Beidou global coverage.

BEIJING, Feb 13 (APP):Hardliner ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition partner and Indian-held Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said bilateral talks with Pakistan were vital.
Her stance is being viewed as a bold step, which she expressed in the wake of a recent attack on an army base in held Kashmir that killed nine, including five soldiers and a civilian.
“Dialogue with Pakistan is necessary if we are to end the bloodshed,” Mufti tweeted on Monday, adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are suffering.
“We have to talk because war is not an option,” she said while also taking a dig at Indian media. “I know I will be labelled anti-national by news anchors tonight, but that doesn’t matter.”
The chief minister has a political agenda to bring the state and the center closer as well as to promote dialogue between India and Pakistan, her party spokesman Waheed Para told China Global Television Network (CGTN) Digital on Tuesday.
She has always been saying the war is not an option, he added.
Para said that when Mufti mentions dialogue, she refers to a more extensive debate that is not limited to peace but also trade talks, as the people in the state are the worst victims of the conflict.
She raised the similar issue earlier in the day in Jammu and Kashmir state assembly, saying the war with Pakistan is not an option, but dialogue. “If we don’t talk about talks with Pakistan, then who will? People from Bihar won’t!” she said.
She referred to former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan in 1999 that many praised as a peace initiative, saying, she wonders what some media outlets would have called him in today’s times for a similar gesture. Vajpayee travelled to Pakistan on the Delhi-Lahore bus.
“She might want to invoke the history of past reconciliation efforts with Pakistan,” Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, an academician at the Central University of Kashmir told CGTN Digital.
There is resentment against Mufti in the state because of her ties with the BJP and by issuing such a statement, she is addressing issues in her constituency, he said, adding that she might also be trying to build up pressure on her coalition partner.
As Mufti expected, she quickly drew criticism for her idea of dialogue with Pakistan from some people on Twitter as well as in the media.
An anchor from the Indian TV channel Times Now called her comment a “shocker.”
She has pulled down the marker as far as India’s relation with Pakistan is concerned, the anchor said.
Indian columnist Tavleen Singh took to Twitter to reject Mufti’s proposal. It might be time for Mehbooba Mufti talk a bit more to Kashmiris instead.”
Mehbooba Mufti is taking Kashmir back to the brink, wrote a Twitter user.
Mufti, whose People’s Democratic Party is ruling the state in alliance with the BJP, is not alone in advocating peace with Pakistan.
Indian Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer, who is attending Karachi Literature Festival in Pakistan, praised Islamabad for what he said its approach of attempting to resolve the outstanding issues with India via negotiation and dialogue.
India, however, is not reciprocating, he said. “There is only one way of resolving India-Pakistan issues and that is by uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue,” he added.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (APP):US lawmakers are once again likely to oppose a proposed cut in spending on diplomacy and foreign aid by President Trump, fearing it will hurt America’s global interests and provide leverage to rival superpowers, China and Russia, an online political magazine reported on Tuesday.
President Trump is again demanding to slash spending on diplomacy and foreign assistance by nearly 30% to $41.7 billion in fiscal 2019, from an enacted level of $59.6 billion in the fiscal year 2017, the POLITICO magazine reported, but observed that lawmakers were likely to ignore him again, the way they did it when he sought a similar cut last year.
Instead of channeling through the US State Department and USAID agency, Trump want to provide direct money to Pentagon, but his proposed cut was likely to face stiff resistance from Congress.
“A strong, bipartisan coalition in Congress has already acted once to stop deep cuts to the State Department and Agency for International Development that would have undermined our national security. This year, we will act again,” the magazine quoted Republican Senator Ed Royce, as saying. Royce, from Trump’s party, chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
At a US State Department briefing, officials indicated that the general message for this budget was to restrain non-defense discretionary spending, a reference to money the US State Department spend on diplomacy and through USAID.
The proposed cut will result in a cut in allocations for many countries which receive US aid, including Pakistan. A senior State Department official, who was present at the briefing, however, told a questioner that the department have funded only about 10 of US critical power and Pakistan was among them. “…This shows the importance of Pakistan as a major security partner for us.”
It may be mentioned here, that for now, US is withhold all security assistance to Pakistan for an alleged lack of cooperation in fighting terrorism. Islamabad has already rejected the US accusation, saying it was taking actions against all terrorist groups.
US lawmakers had also opposed cut in funding to the US State Department last year and Congressman Eliot Engel of New York, a ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged his fellow lawmakers to make sure that the budget proposal by Trump is “dead on arrival”.
“The bottom line is that these cuts would make us less safe…They are a gift to countries like Russia and China who are already filling the void left by America’s diminishing role in the world,” he said in a statement while commenting on the proposed cut by President Trump.
According to the POLITICO report, Trump’s proposals is another blow to the morale of the US State Department, “where many diplomats have felt marginalized and undervalued by the administration”.
The report also observed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s unwillingness to challenge the White House on the budget has hurt his credibility among career staffers at State.
Among the critics is Melinda Gates, the wife of billionaire US businessman Bill Gates, who expressed concern about “underfunding” of family planning and other health programs.
“When we cut funding for the programs that are keeping women and children alive, it sends a signal to the world that we do not care about their lives or futures,” the report quoted her as saying in a statement.