Resolution to prevent arms race in outer space fails to pass

A Russian-drafted resolution submitted to the United Nations Security Council on Monday calling on all nations to “permanently” refrain from deploying, threatening or using weapons in space failed to pass.

The draft resolution did not receive the minimum nine votes needed to pass. It received seven votes in favor and seven against, with one abstention. A resolution can only be vetoed by the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom or France if the draft resolution receives at least nine votes in favor.

Russia proposed the draft after vetoing a US-drafted resolution last month that called on countries to prevent an arms race in space. The Russian veto raised US suspicions that Moscow may have something to hide.

“We are here today because Russia wants to distract world public opinion from its development of a nuclear-armed satellite,” US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council before the vote.

He also accused Russia of launching a satellite on Tuesday into low Earth orbit, which the US said “could be a space defense weapon and is believed to have the ability to attack other satellites in low Earth orbit.”

“Russia has deployed this space defense weapon into an orbit that overlaps with that of a U.S. government satellite,” Mr. Wood said, adding that Russia’s May 16 launch followed launches of “potentially space defense systems in low Earth orbit” in 2019 and 2022.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, responded: “I have absolutely no idea what he said.”

Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File photo

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty banned signatory countries – including the US and Russia – from launching “any object carrying nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction into orbit around the Earth.”

Washington has accused Moscow of developing anti-satellite nuclear weapons for deployment in space, a charge Russia has denied. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is categorically against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space.

Mr. Nebenzia affirmed that the Russian draft resolution covers weapons of mass destruction as well as all other types of weapons and is aimed at preventing an arms race in space.

But when questioned by Nebenzia, Mr Wood expressed disagreement with the draft's content, which aimed to create “a lengthy binding mechanism that cannot be verified” and asserted that “I have seen something similar before”.

The Russian draft resolution is similar to a 2008 proposal from Moscow and Beijing to create a treaty banning “all weapons in outer space” and the threat “or use of force against objects in outer space,” but the diplomatic effort failed to gain international support.

Nguyen Quang Minh (According to Reuters)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/nghi-quyet-ngan-chan-chay-dua-vu-trang-o-vu-tru-khong-duoc-thong-qua-a664647.html