On Wednesday, Russia vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution calling on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space. The vote came after Washington accused Moscow of developing anti-satellite nuclear weapons to be launched into space. Russia then denied these accusations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space.
“Today’s veto gives us pause. Why? Why, if you follow the rules, don’t you support a resolution that confirms them? What can you hide?,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield after the council vote.
Russia’s representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, accused Washington of slander and said that his country would soon begin negotiations with members of the Security Council on its own draft resolution on peaceful space.
The draft was put to a vote by the United States and Japan after nearly six weeks of negotiations. He received 13 votes in favor. At the same time, China abstained, and Russia vetoed. The document would reaffirm the commitment to comply with the Outer Space Treaty and “actively promote the goal of the peaceful use of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.”
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits signatories – including Russia and the United States – from placing “in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction.”
Before the Council voted on the draft resolution, Russia and China proposed an amendment to it. It called on all states to “prevent forever the placement of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force in outer space, from space against the Earth, and from the Earth against objects in outer space.” Seven participants voted for this amendment, the same number voted against, and one abstained.
Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the US President for National Security, said that Russia is developing a new satellite weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. He stated that this was the reason for the vetoing of the US-Japanese resolution in the UN Security Council.
“We heard President Putin publicly declare that the Russian Federation does not intend to place nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed the resolution,” the US official said.
The official speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the Russian veto, explaining it by the refusal of the amendments proposed by the Russian Federation for the resolution. According to her, Russia wanted all types of weapons, not just weapons of mass destruction, to be banned in space.
