Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy in the First Committee of the 75th session of the UNGA on cluster 3 "Outer space (disarmament aspects)"

Mr. President,

Space is humanity’s common heritage. Its future largely depends on how we manage our achievements in the exploration of the near-Earth space.

Together with its like-minded partners, Russia seeks to prevent armed race in outer space (PAROS).

In the recent years, we have put forward a range of initiatives aimed at solving this task. The central one is Russia-China draft treaty on the prevention of the placement of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force against outer space objects (PPWT). Unfortunately, a number of states led by the United States refused to express political will and compromise for the sake of strengthening the international security. That is why the Conference of Disarmament has not been able to begin targeted work on this document.

Further practical steps on PAROS are of utmost importance. We commend the work of the UN Group of Governmental Experts at this track, even though it failed to adopt its final report because of the opponency of the United States. Nevertheless, we are convinced that this topic should remain on the agenda of the First Committee. We will submit a draft procedural decision on that matter and call upon everyone to support it.  

At this session, we also have prepared two draft resolutions that have already become traditional for the First Committee: "No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space" and "Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities". Since last year, both texts have received only technical changes.

The goal of the first document is to help mobilize (while not undermining national interests of UN Member-States) the international community in support of multilateral NFP (no first placement of weapons in outer space) initiative/political commitment that Russia proposed as early as 2004.

Unfortunately, our conclusions that Western countries are opposed to any agreements of NFP prove right again. Today, for the first time in history of this resolution, the corresponding preamble paragraphs were put to a separate vote. PP5 on “community of the common future of humanity” was also put to vote on a far-fetched pretext. We share opinion of our Chinese colleagues that this is a provocative step that has nothing to do either with PAROS agenda or with the text of the resolution itself.

Our second draft is meant to encourage further discussion on transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities that are an inalienable part of our work on the PPWT.

These are popular initiatives that are well known in the General Assembly. Year to year the UNGA adopts them by an overwhelming majority of votes. We expect that this UNGA session will again give wide support and co-sponsorship to our draft resolutions. It would demonstrate unity of the global community and its commitment to prevent outer space from turning into a platform for armed action.

Our detailed position on space-related disarmament aspects will be included in the compendium.

Thank you.