Inmarsat welcomes President Xi to London Headquarters

Inmarsat welcomed the President of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Xi Jinping to its London headquarters, as part of the President’s historic State Visit to the UK.

The visit reflects the close working relationship between Inmarsat and China. China was one of the eighty-six countries that came together to found Inmarsat with a maritime safety mandate and over thirty five years later Inmarsat continues to contribute to safety and security in Maritime and Aviation and more recently during disaster situations in China.

President Xi, accompanied by HRH The Duke of York, the Chinese Ambassador to London, Mr Liu Xiaoming, The Right Honourable Greg Hands and Inmarsat executives, viewed Inmarsat’s Network Operations Centre to understand how Inmarsat is able to uniquely contribute to President Xi’s One Belt One Road (‘OBOR’) strategic vision through the provision of critical global mobile broadband connectivity services, including Inmarsat’s revolutionary new service, Global Xpress.

Inmarsat has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China Transport Telecommunication & Information Centre (CTTIC) to establish a strategic partnership to deliver Inmarsat’s revolutionary Inmarsat-5 Global Xpress mobile satellite broadband communications connectivity throughout China and OBOR. The MOU creates the framework for an exclusive strategic relationship between Inmarsat and CTTIC to develop business opportunities in China and OBOR for CTTIC’s Chinese government and enterprise customers through the unique and revolutionary capabilities of the Inmarsat-5 satellites. It also sets out the framework for Inmarsat and CTTIC to establish a partnership to provide global aviation passenger connectivity and next generation safety services to Chinese airlines.

Rupert Pearce, CEO, Inmarsat, said: “We were most honoured to welcome President Xi to our London headquarters today. His visit reinforces the long and trusted relationship Inmarsat has had with China since our establishment in 1979 and underscores our commitment both to strengthening our partnership with our long-established channel partners in China and to supporting President Xi’s visionary ‘One Belt One Road’ strategic initiative. We welcome today’s visit as an opportunity to demonstrate how our business and humanitarian partnership with China can continue to grow and develop, bringing commercial, technological and social benefits both within China and to countries within OBOR and indeed to Chinese businesses across the globe.”