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'Why it is dangerous to place weapons in Space', Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Alexander Yakovenko, May 25, 2005

"Why It Is Dangerous to Place Weapons in Space" Article of Alexander Yakovenko, Spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Published in the Newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on May 25, 2005.

To some or other extent, more than 130 states participate in space activities today. They have either their own space programs or develop programs to use information from spacecraft, in solving defense tasks, among other things.

But weapons up to now were not placed in space, and none are currently there. This has been the result of a number of international agreements. Thus, for example, in its time the USSR acted as the initiator of the conclusion of the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water (the 1963 partial test-ban Treaty). This treaty went down in history as the Moscow Treaty. Then followed the space treaty of 1967 and the 1979 agreement on activities on the Moon.

Yet the international legal basis currently existing in this field governs only certain aspects of use of outer space for military purposes, and it is obviously not enough to prevent the appearance in space of other types of weapon.

Why is it so dangerous weaponizing space? The fact is that placing weapon systems of varying purpose in space may lead to an undermining of the whole existing structure of arms limitation agreements, primarily in the nuclear-missile domain.

And it is not that the US and Russia are seeking strategic offensive reductions and no longer regard each other as foes. Weaponizing space will give unilateral defense advantages, and so give rise to an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion. This may result in other countries placing analogous systems in space, which will inevitably reduce security for all.

All this the US and the Soviet Union already went through in the nuclear-missile sphere. And countries which can in the future possess capabilities to place weapons in space are becoming ever more. Yet the conversion of outer space into a potential theater of military operations would be fraught with substantial threats of a breach of strategic stability and international security.

Placing weapons in space would have a serious impact on military strategic balance, create the illusion of a possibility of an unpunished first strike and increase the significance of the element of surprise manyfold. All experts accept this. Such weapons would be destabilizing in essence, regardless of which category to assign them to - offensive or defensive.

Appearance of weapons in space does not meet the interests of international security, Moscow believes. Proceeding from this assumption, Russia has been consistently pursuing a line on preventing their placement in space.

In particular, at the 56th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2001 the Foreign Minister of Russia suggested beginning the elaboration of a comprehensive agreement on the prevention of the deployment of weapons in outer space, the threat or use of force against outer space objects. As also imposing a moratorium on the placement of combat means in space until that agreement is reached.

Possible elements of the agreement were then later submitted by Russia and China at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) at Geneva in June 2002. They envisage the following key obligations:

- not to launch into orbit around the Earth any objects with any types of weapon, not to place such weapons on celestial bodies and not to deploy such weapons in outer space in any other way;

- not to resort to the use or threat of force against outer space objects.

I would like to note that the document proposed by Russia and China is not a ready text for a future treaty. This concerns only its basic elements. Work has to be done to fill the document with specific content. The Russian side is ready to cooperate in this direction with all interested states, and such work is already being conducted.

Thus, in August 2004 the Russian and Chinese delegations at the conference in Geneva prepared and circulated detailing materials on the verification of a future agreement on the prevention of the deployment of weapons in outer space. They also contained an analysis of the existing norms of international law governing military space activities.

As a practical step to ensure progress towards an agreement on the prevention of the deployment in space of weapons of all types, Russia plans to suggest a draft resolution of the UN General Assembly on measures for transparency and greater trust in space activities.

This document lies in the mainstream of the key provisions of the annual resolution of the UN General Assembly on prevention of an arms race in outer space and makes it possible even today - in the conditions of the unsettledness at the Conference on Disarmament of the question of resuming the work of the special committee on space - to advance the discussion in the interest of preserving the peaceful status of outer space.

Developing the earlier proposal for a moratorium on the placement of combat means in space, Russia in October 2004 at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly declared that it would not be the first to place weapons of any type in outer space, and called upon all the other states with space potential to follow suit in order to preserve the peaceful status of space.

Still earlier, in 2002, Russia declared its readiness to take a practical measure towards openness and confidence-building in the space field: provide information in advance about upcoming launches of space objects in Russia and their purpose. This information is now being regularly posted on the Russian MFA's official website (www.mid.ru).

A representative international conference on the theme of "Space Security: the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space" took place in Geneva this past spring. The conference showed the concern of the broad sections of the international community over the danger of weapons being placed in outer space. The prevention of deployment of weapons in space was called an important task of our time.

Russia's new initiative, its pledge not to be the first to place weapons of any type in outer space, gained broad support at the conference.

Outer space is our common possession, and it would be in the interest of the world community to develop and use it for peaceful purposes only. The consistent policy of Russia in this field pursues no aim of infringing on the interests of any state; it is directed towards a joint search for ways to prevent an arms race in space.

For weapons in space are a genie that cannot be let out of the bottle. Therefore Moscow is particularly concerned by reports of US plans to deploy strategic weapons in outer space, in particular, the intention to station missile defense components in near-Earth orbit.

Source: Russia Ministry for Foreign Affairs, http://www.russianembassy.org.

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