Russia, China Warn of Space Arms Race

MosNews
Jun. 09, 2006

Russia and China on The United Nations Conference on Disarmament Thursday warned that space-based weapons would pose as great a threat as weapons of mass destruction, and called for global negotiations to stop their deployment, the Scotsman internet daily reported.

Diplomats said the calls from the two powers were mainly targeted at the United States, expected by some to leave open the option of putting weaponry in orbit when it issues a new space policy soon.

The Conference on Disarmament is focusing talks on the prospects for launching negotiations on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. The U.S. and Britain are virtually alone among the forum’s 65 member states in opposing the start of the negotiations.

Russian ambassador Valery Loshchinin said that “weaponization” of outer space was akin to the “emergence of a new type of weapon of mass destruction”. He added that if there were no weapons in outer space and no room for the use of force, then there would be no arms race there. “We must nip it in the bud”, the ambassador stressed.

Echoing the warning of the Russian official, Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye stated that, “A world free of outer space weapons is no less important than a world free of the weapons of mass destruction.”

“The development of outer space weapons keeps progressing quietly and relevant military doctrine is taking shape,” he said, without directly naming the Bush administration.

The White House is due to issue a new space policy this month, the first overhaul in a decade. Some U.S. experts have said it would underscore the Pentagon’s determination to protect its existing space assets and maintain dominance of outer space.

Among other countries at the conference session backing the call for talks were Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia (on behalf of the Group of 21 non-aligned countries), North Korea, South Korea and South Africa.

The U.S. delegation did not speak in the three-hour debate. Britain recognized growing concerns by some states, but said it saw no international consensus on the need for a new pact.

A 1967 UN treaty bans weapons of mass destruction from space, but some experts believe the U.S. would not shy from withdrawing from the pact, just as it did from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty so that it could begin deploying a missile defense shield.

China’s envoy said existing international treaties on outer space, including the 1967 and ABM pacts, left gaps. A new international legal instrument was “obviously needed”, and conditions were ripe for launching negotiations, he added.