Russia has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as “a dirty spectacle”.
The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan, would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, which are already banned under a 1967 international treaty.
“Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding,” US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said after the vote.
Thomas-Greenfield made the comments after saying that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had already stated that Moscow had no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.
Russia’s UN Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicised,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favour, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
Russia and China proposed an amendment that would call on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”
But the US opposed it and after the vote Nebenzia said: “We want a ban on the placement of weapons of any kind in outer space, not just WMDs [weapons of mass destruction]. But you don’t want that. And let me ask you that very same question. Why?”
He said much of the US and Japan’s actions become clear “if we recall that the US and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space.”
The US ambassador said before the vote that the world is just beginning to understand “the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space”.
It could destroy “thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world – and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend on,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield announced the US-Japan resolution in March, after the White House confirmed that Russia had obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although it’s not believed to be operational yet.
Governments have increasingly viewed satellites in Earth’s orbit as crucial assets that enable an array of military capabilities on Earth, with space-based communications and satellite-connected drones in the war in Ukraine serving as recent examples of space’s outsized role in modern warfare.
Putin said earlier this year that Russia was against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space. “Our position is clear and transparent: We have always been categorically against and are now against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Putin said.
With Associated Press and Reuters