Among other countries opposing the Russian initiative were Georgia, Israel and Ukraine.

USA, Georgia, Israel and Ukraine voted against the Russian draft of UN resolution on being the first to refuse the deployment of weapons in outer space.

The document was introduced into the General Assembly by Russia in collaboration with 26 countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Pakistan and Syria, which was supported by 122 States. 47 states abstained from voting, including the EU.

The resolution “acknowledges the importance and urgency of preventing an arms race in outer space and the readiness of states to contribute to achieving this goal”.

The Americans are not satisfied with the terminology. In their view, the document does not clearly define the concept of “weapons in outer space”, and there is no mention of the ground-based anti-satellite weapons, that “may increase rather than reduce the mistrust and possible mistakes”, the US delegation said.

Earlier in September Russia and Venezuela signed a joint statement according to which they are not going be the first to deploy weapons in space.