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June 30, 2005

Today, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) focused its plenary session on the issue of Preventing an Arms Race in Outer Space(PAROS), with 21 States delivering interventions, including Germany, France, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, Ethiopia (on behalf of the G21), the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, Syria, Malaysia, South Korea and Cuba. All statements can be found at:http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/cd/speeches05/index.html#second.

As pointed out by Germany, the inadequacy of the existing legal framework regarding weapons in space, coupled with the growing "importance of the civil and commercial use of outer space... especially in the spheres of communication, navigation, environmental protection, weather forecast and monitoring," have contributed to the increasing attention to the need for steps to prevent an arms race in outer space. The most recent General Assembly (GA) resolution on the issue, 59/65, has received more votes than ever before, without "a single country object(ing) to it," as noted by Malaysia.

However, as the United Kingdom pointed out, "there is no international consensus on the need for further treaties". In addition, asserted Ambassador Freeman,"further legal codification of the use of space would be difficult both to agree and verify." He suggested instead to "think about adopting 'rules of the road' in space, similar to those that already exist at sea."

Most countries, including South Africa, Germany, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Canada and Brazil welcomed the efforts of Russia and China, which have submitted three thematic non-papers on the issue, including working paper CD/1679, on "Possible Elements for a Future International Legal Agreement on the Prevention of the Deployment of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force Against Outer Space Objects." Sri Lanka viewed this initiative as "an important step which we hope would contribute positively to the efforts to agree on a mandate for an Ad Hoc Committee to address this issue in the CD."

Russia maintained a conciliatory, if firm posture. Of all the proposals they have put forward, "nothing is carved in stone," assured Ambassador Skotnikov, who acknowledged the challenge of "convinc(ing) those who still express doubts about necessity of a new agreement on PAROS," and affirmed that Russia is "prepared to engage in such an effort."

While staunchly committed to not being the first to deploy weapons in space, Russia warned that, "if someone starts to place weapons in outer space we will have to react accordingly." Russia also announced that the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan- have also pledged a no-first deployment commitment.

The CD has done much work in advancing the PAROS campaign, as reminded by Sri Lanka. Through the previous Ad Hoc Committee, which last met in 1994, great progress had been made on the issue of PAROS, including France's call for confidence-building measures "to enhance the existing treaty regime and prevent the aggressive use of space." The Ad Hoc Committee first broached the issue of space debris, "which is now being taken to its necessary conclusion in the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPOUS)", located in Vienna.

Italy briefly discussed the ways in which "space security is closely linked to a discipline of ballistic missiles launching," noting that, "(u)nannounced launches of missiles, as we have seen in recent years, can provoke major concerns for the international and regional security." Ambassador Trezza offered the Hague Code of Conduct on Ballistic Missile Proliferation as a step in the right direction.

Ireland recommended that the CD "should now take (past initiatives) more firmly into account and seek to advance them by marshalling the relevant technical expertise while building up the necessary confidence for political consensus." Sri Lanka suggested redefining "weapons of mass destruction"- which current legal frameworks effectively ban from outer space- so as to "cover even conventional weapons or new types of weapon systems that can be used for the purpose of mass destruction."

Most, including Pakistan, favor starting discussions in an Ad Hoc Committee based on the A5 proposal, which Germany believes "takes into account the security issues of all member countries."

Canada, whose position on a comprehensive space-based weapons ban "has not changed for over two decades", suggested "scheduling...a series of single topic plenary discussions in the absence of a Program of Work, or through a similar focused discussion in a Group of Experts... (to) address such specific and detailed topics as definitions, scope, transparency and verification, all aspects necessary to conclude an eventual legally binding instrument."

Sweden's Ambassador Bonnier warned, however, that "informal technical meetings...involving a wider range of actors in the space field... are not enough. Forward looking deliberations have to aim at a mechanism or instrument for a clear-cut prohibition of the weaponization of outer space." She also warned that any work on the issue "must not complicate in any way the important work of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space." She recalled Sweden's suggestion that the Secretriat of the Office on Outer Space Affairs brief the GA First Committee on COPOUS work.

And while States like South Africa expressed appreciation for these structured informal plenaries, the "primary aim is to encourage the CD to adopt a Programme of Work." To forget this aim, said Ambassador Mtshali, is to "attend to what now appears to be customary 'business as usual',...run(ning) the risk of turning this body from a negotiating forum into a deliberative body on disarmament."