US and Japan team up to warn against nuclear weapons in space

The U.S. and Japan proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would warn countries against placing nuclear weapons in orbit, as it ramps up pressure on Russia to abandon potential plans to put warheads in space.

The resolution underscores that countries “should not develop nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction designed to be placed in orbit,” according to a draft seen by Bloomberg News.

It also reaffirms expectations that countries must “fully comply” with their obligations under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons in orbit. That includes the deployment of “objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner,” the document says.

The resolution doesn’t mention Russia by name. But it’s being introduced only weeks after the Biden administration said Moscow had plans to develop an anti-satellite space weapon. People familiar with the matter have said the U.S. told allies that Russia could deploy a nuclear weapon or a mock warhead into space as early as this year.

At a Security Council meeting on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia has “invoked dangerous nuclear rhetoric, and walked away from several of its arms control obligations” in the two years since invading Ukraine.

“Any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous and unacceptable,” she said.

It’s unclear whether the draft has any chances of being adopted given Russia wields veto power at the Security Council. Tensions between the two countries have escalated at the U.N. since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and have reached a new height in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, as the two nations have repeatedly opposed each other’s proposals.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s alternate ambassador, called the draft politicized and said it’s “divorced from reality.”

“The wording that it contains has not been worked out at all by the experts nor was it discussed at specialized international platforms,” Polyanskiy said following Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks. “We’re left therefore with the very firm impression that this is just yet another propaganda stunt by Washington.”

The resolution is expected to be put to vote in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with the draft, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.