Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution drafted by the United States that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space, Reuters reports.
This came after Washington accused Moscow of developing space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapons, which Russia denied.
The draft resolution of the Security Council was put to a vote by the USA and Japan — it was preceded by six weeks of negotiations. 13 members of the Security Council out of 15 voted in favor (USA, Great Britain, France, Algeria, Guyana, Ecuador, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Malta, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, Japan). Only Russia spoke against it, and China abstained.
Before the vote, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasyl Nebenzya called this resolution "humorous".
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters that if Russia didnʼt vote for the resolution, "it makes you wonder if itʼs hiding something."
The proposed text of the resolution would reaffirm the commitment to comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits signatories, including Russia and the United States, from placing "in orbit around the Earth any object carrying nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction."
- Representatives of American intelligence believe that the Russian Federation can place in the Earthʼs orbit an object that is a space-based nuclear bomb, the electromagnetic radiation of which, in the event of an explosion, will disable large networks of satellites. The Kremlin responded that the information about Russiaʼs plans to place nuclear weapons in space are "tricks of the White House."