The United States proposed to Russia to create a communication line to prevent conflict situations in outer space. This was announced by Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford, RIA Novosti reports.
According to him, it seems more realistic to organize a two-way communication channel than a multilateral one. Ford noted that the creation of a communication line is due to the need for operational communication between the United States and Russia to solve potential problems. He stressed that in the past two weeks Russia has been doing strange and dangerous things in orbit and therefore a certain misunderstanding could occur.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security said that the parties will discuss this issue at the talks of experts of the two countries in Vienna, which will be held next week.
Earlier, Ford said that the United States considered the proposals of Russia and China to create an international treaty on the non-deployment of weapons in outer space as “bad ideas”. According to him, “it is almost impossible to define what a” weapon in space “is.” In addition, the diplomat said, even if the agreement is adopted, it will hardly be possible to monitor its compliance.
This week, the head of the British space program, Vice Marshal Harvey Smith, accused Russia of testing space anti-satellite weapons in July this year. Actions of this kind, he said, threaten the peaceful uses of outer space and pose the risk that the debris could pose a threat to the satellites and space systems on which the world depends.
US space command also announced that there was information about Russian tests of anti-satellite weapons, which did not bring destruction. According to the department, on July 15, a certain object separated from the Russian satellite “Cosmos-2543”, which is designated as number 45915 in the command catalog.
