Right of reply 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)"
We consider the insinuations that some Western delegations made today as part of a campaign discrediting Russian initiatives aimed to prevent arms race in space. Russia acts on all space-related aspects in full compliance with its commitments under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
Unlike outer space doctrines of, say, France and the United States, our military doctrine envisages elaboration of a legally-binding agreement aimed at keeping outer space free of weapons, whereas US official doctrines in this area envisage deployment of strike combat systems in outer space by the end of this decade.
As for our satellite, it caused no problems to other states. We gave explicit explanations of this on many occasions. In the meantime, there are more than a thousand US satellites in outer space, the majority of which have been launched by the US Department of Defense. We are yet to find out what purpose they serve, as they all are registered as communication or meteorological satellites.
The US and its allies accuse Russia of developing anti-satellite weapons, which we perceive as another attempt at blame shifting. The US itself constantly improves and enhances the anti-satellite capacity of its missile defense system, which went through practical tests in 2008.
It is also obvious that should there be any serious concerns, they cannot be approached via such public discourse. It takes specialized expert and political channels to address those issues. In case with Russia and the US such channels are already in place – one just needs to put them to use. We keep the door open and always stand ready to such dialogue. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same of our US colleagues.
