<p>The world has already accumulated the potential enabling it to deploy weapons in near Earth orbits and put spacecraft out of order. "A build-up of this potential will be increasing its destabilizing influence," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on yesterday.<br /><br />It is the wish to prevent the worst scenario that guided Russia and China as they brought forward in February 2008 a draft treaty on preventing the deployment of weapons in outer space.<br /><br />"We assume that such a treaty should fix the legal commitments on parity basis, without dividing the countries into those that "can" have weapons in space and those that "cannot," he said.<br /><br />"We're hoping for the soonest beginning of substantive work on the Russian-Chinese project," Lavrov underlined, "if we do not get down to it without delay, we may lose time. We are confident that preventing the appearance of weapons in space is extremely necessary for the predictability of the strategic situation on the Earth.<br /><br />"Let's not forget that the chimera of the nuclear monopoly led to the arms race, whose inertia we're only beginning to overcome," the Russian diplomat said. He noted that the approval by the UN General Assembly of the resolution -- which Russia co-authored with a group of states -- on measures of transparency and confidence-building in outer space was an indicator of the growing awareness in many countries of the significance of the problem.<br /><br />"We'll be seeking further consolidation of the international community's efforts in this crucial issue," Lavrov underlined.</p>
<p>The world has already accumulated the potential enabling it to deploy weapons in near Earth orbits and put spacecraft out of order. "A build-up of this potential will be increasing its destabilizing influence," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on yesterday.<br /><br />It is the wish to prevent the worst scenario that guided Russia and China as they brought forward in February 2008 a draft treaty on preventing the deployment of weapons in outer space.<br /><br />"We assume that such a treaty should fix the legal commitments on parity basis, without dividing the countries into those that "can" have weapons in space and those that "cannot," he said.<br /><br />"We're hoping for the soonest beginning of substantive work on the Russian-Chinese project," Lavrov underlined, "if we do not get down to it without delay, we may lose time. We are confident that preventing the appearance of weapons in space is extremely necessary for the predictability of the strategic situation on the Earth.<br /><br />"Let's not forget that the chimera of the nuclear monopoly led to the arms race, whose inertia we're only beginning to overcome," the Russian diplomat said. He noted that the approval by the UN General Assembly of the resolution -- which Russia co-authored with a group of states -- on measures of transparency and confidence-building in outer space was an indicator of the growing awareness in many countries of the significance of the problem.<br /><br />"We'll be seeking further consolidation of the international community's efforts in this crucial issue," Lavrov underlined.</p>
