Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution on Space Nuclear Arms Race – What is Moscow Hiding?

2024-04-24 21:21:00

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, but that the country’s veto raises the question of what the government may be hiding ( Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS)

Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan on Wednesday. which asked all nations to avoid a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstained. Russia dismissed the move as politicized and said it did not go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.

The resolution would have called on all countries to not develop or deploy nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space, prohibited by a 1967 international treaty that included the United States and Russia, and to accept the need to verify compliance.

The American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that the Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, but that the country’s veto raises the question of what the government may be hiding.

Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement of the resolution on March 18 followed the White House’s confirmation in February that Russia had obtained a “concerning” anti-satellite weaponry capability, although such a weapon is not yet operational.

Putin later stated that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the United States.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenziatold the council before the vote that the resolution was “absurd and politicized.”

Nebenzia proposed an amendment to the US-Japan draft saying that an arms race in outer space should refer to all kinds of weapons, not just nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. He was defeated by 7 countries in favor, 7 against and one abstention because he failed to obtain the minimum of 9 “yes” votes necessary for its adoption.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the council before the vote that the resolution was “absurd and politicized” (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo)

The defeated draft resolution said that “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger to international peace and security.” I would have urged all countries carrying out outer space exploration and use activities to comply with international law and Charter of the United Nations.

The draft would have affirmed that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations to not put into orbit around the Earth “any object” with weapons of mass destruction, nor install them “on celestial bodies, nor place such weapons in outer space.”

The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries including the United States and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other type of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

The draft resolution emphasized “the need for additional measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”

He reiterated that the United Nations Disarmament Conference, based in Geneva, has primary responsibility for negotiating agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space.

The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely become a forum for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution would have urged the conference to “adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”

At the March council meeting where the US-Japan initiative was launched, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have increased the risk of nuclear war to its highest point in decades.”

He said that the movie Oppenheimer about Robert Oppenheimer, who led the American project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of the nuclear end of the world to vivid life for millions of people around the world.”

“Humanity cannot survive an Oppenheimer sequel,” the UN chief said.

(With information from EFE)

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