Daily Times

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations this week proposed collective action against the weaponization of outer space, citing proliferation of destructive weapons in the territory by major powers during a debate at the UN General Assembly.

Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, was speaking at a debate at the General Assembly on Monday over Russia’s decision last month to veto a draft US-Japan resolution that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space. The Security Council rejected the resolution by a vote of 13 in favor to one against, with China abstaining from the vote.

The vote came after Washington accused Moscow of developing an anti-satellite nuclear weapon to put in space. Russia has denied the allegations, with its President Vladimir Putin saying Moscow was against putting nuclear weapons in space.

Pakistan has called for steps to prevent the weaponization of outer space, saying such a course would avert a grave danger to international peace and security.

“The threats to security in and from outer space have escalated sharply in recent years. This is evident from the placement of weapons in space, and its increasing characterization as the next war-fighting frontier in the military policies and doctrines of major powers,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN General Assembly on Monday.

The 193-member Assembly was debating Russia’s veto in the Security Council last month which blocked a draft resolution aimed at preventing a new extraterrestrial arms race.

Due to the negative Russian vote, the 15-member Council failed to adopt last month’s text, which received 13 votes in favour, with China abstaining. The draft resolution was introduced by United States and Japan and co-sponsored by over 60 nations.

In his remarks, Ambassador Akram said that the US-Japan draft resolution rightly recognized that the prevention of an arms race in Outer Space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security; underscored the importance of the Outer Space Treaty; and reiterated that the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament as the sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum.

Pakistan, he said, has always maintained a principled position that resolutions on global disarmament issues should be deliberated and concluded in an inclusive and transparent manner within the appropriate forums — the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the UN Disarmament Commission and the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security matters.

The Pakistani envoy regretted that there has been no progress on a Treaty to Prevent an Arms Race in Outer Space for over four decades.

“Initially,” he said, “some dismissed the possibility of an arms race in outer space. Then, they argued that it was too late to prevent its militarization and called for focusing on non-weaponization measures. Now, they want to concentrate on behavior rather than capabilities, ignoring the inherent risks of legitimizing the weaponization of Outer Space.”

Pakistan, Ambassador Akram said, has been advocating a comprehensive approach with a dual focus on both capabilities and behaviour.

“We have consistently advocated urgent negotiations on a legally binding instrument on PAROS (Preventing Arms Race in Outer Space). Concurrently, we have also actively contributed to non-legally binding measures such as Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures (TCBMs).

However, he added, the evident gaps in the international legal regime cannot be filled by TCBMs or other non-legally binding norms.

Regretting that a few states continue to block the start of such negotiations in the Committee on Disarmament (CD) on a legally binding instrument that prohibits the placement of weapons in outer space and outlaws the threat or use of force against outer space objects, the Pakistani envoy said that they have failed to explain how such negotiations would undermine their security interests. “They have also failed to justify why definitional and verification issues cannot be taken up during negotiations – an approach that they advocate for another item in the CD.”

Ambassador Akram therefore hoped that this issue of weaponization of Outer Space, which has been raised in the Security Council, will be transmitted to the C.D. for further consideration within the context of negotiations on a Treaty to prevent an arms race in Outer Space.

Pakistan is eager to take strides in its own space program. China last Friday launched a Pakistani satellite, ‘ICUBE-Qamar’ or ICUBE-Q into outer space, which is set to enter the lunar orbit on a high-stakes moon mission to reach the lunar side. The launch was part of China’s Chang’e-6 mission, a planned robotic lunar exploration mission, that aims to obtain the first-ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side and return them to Earth.

The satellite was designed and developed by IST (Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology) with China’s Shanghai University and Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO, state media had reported.

A senior ICT official who was co-lead on the project said last week that this is Pakistan’s first deep space mission, describing it as a “historic moment.”