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Mr President,
Preventing the weaponisation of outer space is fundamental to safeguarding our ability to access space resources, both now and in the future. It is in all our interests to preserve space for the development of peaceful technologies and scientific exploration.
Preservation of a weapon-free space is rightly a core issue for this Conference. It is highly relevant for all States, including those without space programmes. The commercial and scientific applications of outer space are continually expanding for an increasingly diverse range of functions – from communications to climate change monitoring. We must ensure that future opportunities for peaceful development are not compromised by militarization.
During our discussions in this CD segment on PAROS, we should take the opportunity to evaluate prospects for a more comprehensive legal framework regulating the demilitarization of space. Arguments that there is no current arms race in space, and therefore no need to address this issue, ignore the preventative benefits that adopting a precautionary approach might provide.
We are not without precedent for creating an overarching legal framework for peaceful uses. For example, when the Antarctic Treaty entered into force in 1961, it reserved an entire continent which all agreed would never be militarized or used for hostile purposes. It also prohibited any type of weapon testing. In the negotiation of that Treaty, countries recognised that the peaceful and scientific potential of the area was too important to be compromised through militarisation. The Treaty has provided a stable framework for peaceful cooperation over the last 45 years.
A key consideration for participating States in the Antarctic process was the judgment that the potential benefits for the global community in terms of peaceful uses and scientific research which could be carried out on that continent, under an agreed international treaty regime, outweighed any narrower benefits to individual states which could have been accrued through weaponisation or military deployment by those states.
Mr President
New Zealand is committed to ongoing consideration of PAROS issues within the Conference on Disarmament. Space, by its very nature, is a global frontier. As such, all countries have a stake in ensuring that future development of space resources is peaceful and weapon-free.
