United Nations — A week after vetoing a U.S.-Japan resolution to halt an arms race in space, Russia circulated a UN resolution urging all countries to take immediate steps to prevent weapons from being placed in outer space “forever.”
The Russian draft resolution, goes beyond the U.S.-Japan plan by calling not only for steps to prevent weapons from being deployed in outer space but also for preventing “the threat or use of force in outer space,” “for all time.”
Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft
It states that this should include deploying weapons “from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.”
When Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected the United States-Japan draft, he warned the Security Council that it did not go far enough in outlawing all sorts of weapons in space.
The vetoed resolution only addressed weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and made no mention of other weapons in space.
It would have urged all countries to refrain from developing or deploying nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as prohibited by a 1967 international convention adopted by the United States and Russia, and to recognize the importance of verifying compliance.
Before the US-Japan resolution was voted on April 24, Russia and China presented an amendment calling on all countries, particularly those with space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”
Seven countries voted in favor, seven against, and one abstention, and the amendment failed to receive the requisite nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Security Council.
Following the decision, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed the council that Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow has no intention of placing nuclear weapons in space.
“Today’s veto raises the question: why? Why, if you are obeying the rules, would you oppose a resolution that reinforces them? “What could you possibly be hiding?” she inquired. “It’s confusing. And it is a disgrace.”
Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft
Putin was responding to the White House’s revelation in February that Russia had acquired a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, but such a weapon is not yet operational.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN Ambassador, said after casting the veto that the US-Japan resolution cherry-picked weapons of mass devastation.
He emphasized that the US and its partners had already revealed plans to deploy weapons in outer space, which explains their activities.
Nebenzia also claimed that the United States has been opposing a Russian-Chinese proposal for a convention prohibiting the deployment of weapons in outer space since 2008.
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, recklessly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” abandoning several arms control obligations, and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”
Russia Proposes UN Resolution On Banning Weapons In Space, After Vetoing Similar UN-Japan Draft
Much of the Russian draft resolution is identical to the US-Japan text, including the wording aimed at averting an arms race in space.
It urges all countries, particularly those with significant space capabilities, “to actively contribute to the goal of the peaceful use of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.”
According to Thomas-Greenfield, the world is only beginning to realize “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.”
SOURCE – (AP)
