Russia defends veto of UN resolution to prohibit nukes in outer space, urges vote to ban all weapons

UNITED NATIONS — Russia on Monday defended its veto of a UN resolution calling on all countries to prevent a nuclear arms race in space, challenging the US, Japan and their Western allies to back Moscow’s rival resolution calling for a ban on all weapons in space “forever”. .”

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the United States and Japan, which supported the resolution, were guilty of “hypocrisy and double standards.” He accused the US and Western countries more broadly of planning military space exploration, including the use of weapons, in particular “assault combat systems.”

US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood responded, telling the UN General Assembly: “The truth is that Russia currently already has several conventional anti-satellite weapons in orbit, one of which it tested in 2019.” He added that Russia has threatened to attack satellites with weapons, saying there is “credible information that Russia is developing a new satellite with a nuclear device.”

The verbal clash came on a day when Russia threatened to attack British military facilities and said it planned to hold exercises to simulate the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. Moscow’s actions were in response to comments from senior Western officials about possible deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

In February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to rising tensions with the West over his support for Ukraine by announcing that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START Treaty – the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.

The United Nations warned on Monday of growing concern over recent increased talks on nuclear weapons by several parties when asked about planned Russian exercises simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“Current nuclear risks are at alarmingly high levels,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “All actions that could lead to miscalculations and escalations with catastrophic consequences must be avoided.”

Under a General Assembly resolution adopted in April 2022, any permanent member of the Security Council – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – that vetoes a resolution must appear before the 193-member world body to to explain why.

Before the U.S.-Japan resolution was voted on April 24, Russia and China unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would have called on all countries to prevent all weapons — not just weapons of mass destruction — from entering space.

In the subsequent vote on the US-Japan resolution, thirteen countries voted ‘yes’, China abstained and Russia voted ‘no’, vetoing the measure.

A week later, Russia circulated its rival resolution calling on all countries to stop deploying all weapons in space, as well as “the threat or use of force in space,” also “in perpetuity.”

On Monday, Nebenzia argued that the United States and its allies are against a ban on all weapons in space because they plan to deploy weapons there and delay the threat of the use of force in space – “from space and against objects in space. .”

Wood questioned the sincerity of Putin’s public comments that Russia has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.

“If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution,” Wood said. “Russia’s actions raise serious doubts about whether it will comply with existing legal obligations under the Outer Space Treaty and raise concerns about what this could mean for international peace and security.”

The US-Japan resolution would have confirmed that countries that have ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must meet their obligations not to place “any object” carrying weapons of mass destruction into orbit or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in space.” The treaty was ratified by 114 countries, including the US and Russia.

Wood said all countries should support the Outer Space Treaty and not let Russia distract from the pact’s provisions by trying to advance its own resolution, language for which he said is being discussed in other bodies where consensus does not yet exist.

“Russia’s actions are only intended to divide states and not to unite us,” he said.

Japanese Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki asked UN member states to imagine what would happen if a nuclear weapon exploded in space.

“A large number of satellites and other critical space infrastructure would be downed,” he said.

But the consequences would not be limited to space, Yamazaki said, saying it would have repercussions on people’s lives and hinder development “in every region on Earth, disastrously and irreversibly.”