The United States has rejected a Russia-led proposal in the United Nations to ban the first deployment of space-based weapons, pointing to what the U.S. delegation characterized as weak wording that overlooks an entire class of ground-based space weapons.
Known as the “no first placement” initiative, the proposed UN resolution was drafted by Russia in 2014 as an apparent bid to place further restrictions on the militarization of space — already prohibited broadly by the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty.
The U.S. delegation to the UN’s First Committee of the General Assembly, a body where international talks on disarmament issues are often discussed, voted against the draft resolution on Wednesday, as did Israel, Georgia and Ukraine.
European Union nations abstained from the vote. Nations that voted in favor of Russia’s proposal include China and Syria …. http://www.themoscowtimes.com
