（Staff Writers， Moscow, Russia (Sputnik) Feb 26, 2015）The Khrunichev Space Center and Gazprom Space Systems reached a deal on Wednesday to launch Russia's new Yamal-601 satellite in 2018.

　 　Yamal-601 will provide telecommunications services to customers in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

　 　The satellite will be launched by the Proton-M carrier rocket, and is set to replace the Yamal-202 at the end of its operational lifetime.

　　 The two companies also agreed on a 15-year cooperation deal.

　 　"We created a whole series of proposals, which were welcomed by our client, and we ended up with a mutually beneficial cooperation agreement for 15 years. Our strategic partnership shows that changes in the Khrunichev Center are going in the right direction," the center's acting CEO Andrey Kalinovsky told reporters.

　　 The Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is one of the world's leading launch system producers.

　　 JSC Gazprom Space Systems develops and operates satellites, as well as ground telecommunications infrastructure. The company is majority owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom.