NEW DELHI: Russia on Friday highlighted “the non-directedness” of the anti-satellite weapons test conducted by India against any specific country and New Delhi’s reassurance of continuance of foreign policy to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space.
India shot down one of its satellites in space on Wednesday with an anti-satellite missile to demonstrate this complex capability, making it only the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to have used such a weapon.
“We noted the test of anti-satellite weapons conducted by India on March 27, as a result of which an Indian spacecraft — a target — in a low earth orbit was hit by an interceptor ballistic missile,” the Russian Foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We highlight the non-directedness of this test against any specific country declared by the Indian leadership, as well as the reassurance of the continuity of New Delhi foreign policy to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space and thereby the development of an arms race in it,” the statement said.
Russia also said this action of India has been largely the result of the substantially “degraded situation” in the field of arms control.
It said that Russia has repeatedly warned that the “destructive actions” of the US to undermine the entire architecture of international security and strategic stability, including unilateral and unlimited development of the US global anti-missile defense systems, as well as the reluctance to abandon plans for the weaponisation of outer space, make other states think about improving their own equal potentials in the interests of strengthening their national security.
“We urge Washington to take a responsible stand, come to senses and drop the insane, and most importantly – absolutely unrealisable – the idea of universal military domination. It is still possible to stop the arms race unfolding in various regions of the world,” the statement said.
It is important to assist the responsible states in maintaining an adequate level of international security and stability, the statement said.
Russia said for its part, it intends to continue to make every necessary effort to prevent an arms race in outer space.
The idea of developing a multilateral legally binding instrument for keeping outer space peaceful based on the Russian-Chinese draft treaty, with the support of a solid group of like-minded nations to prevent the weaponisation of outer space, the use or threat of force against space objects, as well as the multilateral initiative, political obligations not to be the first to place weapons in space are becoming particularly important, it said.
“We offer our Indian partners to actively join these joint efforts of the international community,” it said.
Declaring India has established itself as a global space power after the success of the operation ‘Mission Shakti’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the missile hit a live satellite flying in a Low Earth Orbit after it traversed a distance of almost 300 km from earth within three minutes of its launch. PTI
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