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United Nations Outer Space Arms Race
FILE - Russian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia addresses members of the U.N. Security Council during a meeting on Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, April 24, 2024, at the United Nations headquarters. The United States says that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space. That's a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemn, even as they failed on May 20, to pass a measure against it. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

UN Security Council rejects Russia-backed resolution on banning weapons in space

The United States says that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space

By Michael Weissenstein
Published - May 20, 2024, 07:42 PM ET
Last Updated - May 27, 2024, 12:29 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States said Monday that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space, a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemned even as they failed to pass a measure against it.

The Security Council resolution drafted by Russia rivaled one backed by the U.S. and Japan that failed last month. The rival drafts focused on different types of weapons, with the U.S. and Japan specifying weapons of mass destruction. The Russian draft discussed all types of weapons.

The U.S. and its allies said the language that the 15-member council debated on Monday was simply meant to distract the world from Russia's true intention: weaponizing space.

“The culmination of Russia’s campaign of diplomatic gaslighting and dissembling is the text before us today," U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council.

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