China and Russia have renewed calls for a global treaty to prevent the weaponisation of outer space, warning that U.S. missile defense plans risk igniting a new arms race beyond Earth.
The prevention of an arms race in space has long been on the United Nations disarmament agenda as experts caution that even a fragment of debris can disable satellites, making almost any object a potential weapon.
Militaries worldwide already rely on satellites for communications, navigation, early warning and surveillance, raising the stakes of any confrontation in orbit.
In 2008, Beijing and Moscow presented a draft treaty at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament that would ban the deployment of weapons in low-Earth orbit and prohibit attacks on space objects.
They argue such a pact would prevent space from becoming a battlefield and reduce risks of global escalation.
The two countries reiterated their stance in a joint statement on May 8, this year, condemning what they described as U.S. efforts to militarise space.
The UN General Assembly has repeatedly affirmed the urgency of the issue, though Washington maintains that the inability to define “space weapons” makes a binding treaty unworkable.
Concerns grew in May when the U.S. President Donald Trump announced the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, reviving the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative, which was scrapped due to cost.
The new plan would use a network of reconnaissance and combat satellites to detect missile launches in real time and neutralise them with lasers, kinetic interceptors or radio-frequency weapons.
Trump said the system could intercept missiles “even if launched from the opposite side of the world.”
Analysts say such unilateral projects could upset global security balances. “If one country starts deploying missile defense systems in space, others perceive this as a threat to their security and begin to act symmetrically,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
Most UN member states support a multilateral treaty as the only safeguard against a space arms race, insisting it would not restrict access to space but would ensure it remains a peaceful domain. The United States and some allies, however, consistently vote against resolutions backing negotiations, leaving efforts stalled.
