US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution

RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to World News@lemmy.world – 239 points –
US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution
theguardian.com
25

Isn't this redundant? The UN Outer Space Treaty already prohibits all WMDs in space, and all major countries have signed on.

States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

yes but political pandering

I think it might also be aimed at Russia because of the recent talks about space shenanigans

Seeing as China and Russia have UN Security Council vetos I don’t see how this would pass.

The UN is something everyone just ignores as we've learned over the last five months. Especially America.

UN is useless for countries like Russia, china and US and it's allies

I might sound like an idiot but what is the thing in the center of the photo used in this article? At first I thought it was someone in a black robe and black veil making their case to the council which upon closer inspection can't be true, then looking closer it looks like a filled trash bag in the middle of the council which makes even less sense.

What am I looking at here?

TOPOTUN - The Other President Of The United Nations 🤖

Anyone who can get a nuke in space already has nukes in space.

Evidence?

Yes.

Where?

History.

Ah. So you don't have a source.

Cool.

You're really expecting a source for this type of thing as if a leak wouldn't have the unavoidable side effect of escalating things beyond anyone's control.

The evidence are the decisions made by every major power across the last century. The various leaks already made public show that the those able to do it are also willing to do it.

You see all the bad things done so far and yet think to yourself, of course they wouldn't do this? Really.

No. I'm just highlighting how you spout bullshit with no source to back it up and think it's true.

No. You assume it's bullshit and think that's the truth.
Which is great because this isn't a topic I'm willing to defend. Proof in this case at the wrong moment would afterwards require an escalation of violence few people would be comfortable with.

Explain to me again how are we going to shoot down the alien space ships then? With what? Freaking rail cannons?

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The US and Japan are sponsoring a UN security council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the US ambassador has announced.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous, and unacceptable.”

Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, who chaired the council meeting, said that even during “the confrontational environment” of the cold war, global rivals agreed to ensure that outer space remained peaceful.

Monday’s proposed resolution from the US and Japan was condemned as “yet another propaganda stunt by Washington,” “very politicised” and “divorced from reality” by Russia’s deputy US ambassador Dmitry Polyansky.

He criticised the text, saying the wording had not been worked out by experts nor discussed at specialised international platforms such as the UN Conference on Disarmament or the UN Committee on Outer Space.

UN secretary-general António Guterres briefed the council, saying “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”


The original article contains 478 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

The only result of such a resolution would be that China, India and Russia would be the only countries with nukes in space.