US and Russia hold talks on space security in Vienna

The US and Russia hold their first space-security talks since 2013, wrestling with how to stop the increasing militarisation of space.

Delegates arrive for the talks in Vienna on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

The US and Russia have held their first space security talks since 2013, with the two sides wrestling with how to guard against the increasing militarisation of space.

Trump administration officials hoped the meeting in Vienna on Monday (Tuesday AEST) would lead to the establishment of a set of voluntary norms for operating in space and possibly a new communications channel to link space officials on each side.

But Russia has advocated a very different approach: a formal treaty against the placement of weapons in space, reflecting Moscow’s longstanding push to head off a potential US effort to develop space-based anti-missile defences.

That has left it unclear if the two sides can find common ground. Neither side issued a statement following the conclusion of the one-day meeting.

The US military is heavily dependent on its intelligence and communications satellites.

The two sides have been improving their military capabilities to operate in space and focusing on ways to reduce the vulnerability of their space assets. Last year, US President Donald Trump pushed congress to establish a space force, a sixth branch of the American military that remains under the jurisdiction of the air force.

Last week, the US and Britain accused Russia of conducting an anti-satellite weapons test on July 15 in which an orbiting ­Russian satellite fired a projectile near a Russian satellite. The Russian Defence Ministry denied the allegation.

In April, Russia tested a ground-based anti-satellite system from its Plesetsk base in northern Russia. No target was destroyed in the April or July tests, which avoided dispersing debris in orbit.

Adding to Washington’s concern, US officials said in February that two Russian satellites had manoeuvred near an American KH-11 spy satellite.

Led by a senior State Department official, the US interagency team also included a senior officer from the nascent space force. The two sides had staked out their parallel approaches in the run-up to the meeting.

Christopher Ford, a senior State Department official, asserted that the sort of treaty Russia has proposed would be hard to verify and wouldn’t cover Russia’s ground-based anti-satellite weapons. Rather, he said the goal should be to work out “norms of responsible behaviour”.

Reinforcing the US argument that a legal treaty isn’t the goal, the space meeting was conducted separately from the arms control talks on a potential accord to replace the New START treaty cutting large arms, which also are being held in Vienna this week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Russia’s goal remained a commitment on the “non-deployment of any kinds of arms in outer space”.

The US and Russia aren’t the only space powers. China in 2007 used a missile to destroy one of its weather satellites as it strove to field an anti-satellite capability. Last year, India destroyed an Indian satellite with a missile.

The US held space talks with the Chinese in 2019, but hasn’t said what they accomplished.

The Wall Street Journal