US and Japan, nuclear weapon launcher and survivor, call for ban on space nukes with Russia in mind

It was a strange coming together. The US and Japan - the country that dropped the atomic bomb and the one that bore the brunt of that catastrophe- have moved a UN resolution against nukes in space, with eye on Russia.

In a bid to avoid a real-life sequel to Openheimer, the superhit film on the father on the atomic bomb, the two countries on Monday (Mar 18) proposed
and sponsored a United Nations Security Council resolution which called all nations not to deploy or create nuclear weapons in space.

The resolution, which warned countries against placing any kind of nuclear weapons in space, indirectly tried to pressure Russia to drop its novel plan of placing the warheads in space.

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As per the draft, the resolution stressed that the countries "should not develop nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction designed to be placed in orbit".

Also Read:Putin's cosmic plan: Russian president wants to install nuclear power unit in space

It further reminded the countries that they must "fully comply" with their duties which have been mentioned in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids the placement of nuclear weapons in space.

The treaty includes not deploying "objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner," as per the document.

In the resolution, the name of Russia does not appear directly.

But it came weeks after the Biden administration said that Moscow had plans to create an anti-satellite space weapon.

Placement of nuclear weapons in space dangerous, unacceptable: US ambassador to UN

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, while speaking at a Security Council meeting on Monday, said Russia has "invoked dangerous nuclear rhetoric, and walked away from several of its arms control obligations" in the two years since it invaded Ukraine.

"Any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous and unacceptable," Thomas-Greenfield said.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, said that even during “the confrontational environment” of the Cold War, the countries had agreed on ensuring that the outer space is peaceful.

Watch:Rapidly evolving threat in space: Putin says, 'No plans to deploy nukes in space'

She added that this kind of agreement prohibits the placement of any weapons of mass destruction into orbit.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, who represents Russia at the UN, said that the draft does not match the political upheaval in the current date.

"The wording that it contains has not been worked out at all by the experts nor was it discussed at specialised international platforms," said Polyanskiy, after Thomas-Greenfield talked.

"We're left therefore with the very firm impression that this is just yet another propaganda stunt by Washington," he added.

In 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, and Nagasaki was bombed three days later, on August 9.

(With inputs from agencies)