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Moscow:
Russia on Friday dismissed accusations from the United States and Britain that it had examined an anti-satellite weapon in area as “propaganda”.
Moscow responded after the United States Space Command on Thursday accused Russia of test-firing an anti-satellite weapon in area and warned the risk towards US techniques was “real, serious and increasing”.
The head of Britain’s Space Directorate, Air Vice-Marshal Harvey Smyth, additionally reacted, tweeting that “actions of this kind threaten the peaceful use of space.”
The Russian international ministry insisted on Moscow’s “commitment to obligations on the non-discriminatory use and study of space with peaceful aims.
“We name on our US and British colleagues to point out professionalism and as an alternative of some propagandistic data assaults, sit down for talks,” the ministry said in a statement.
The US said that Russia conducted a “non-destructive check of a space-based anti-satellite weapon”.
“Clearly that is unacceptable,” tweeted US nuclear disarmament negotiator Marshall Billingslea, adding that it would be a “main problem” discussed next week in Vienna, where he is in talks on a successor to the New START treaty.
The treaty caps the nuclear warheads of the US and Russia — the two Cold War-era superpowers.
The Russian foreign ministry said tests carried out by the country’s defence ministry on July 15 “didn’t create a risk for different area gear and most significantly, didn’t breach any norms or rules of worldwide regulation.”
It in turn accused the US and Britain of moves to develop anti-satellite weaponry.
‘Inspector satellites’
The US and Britain “naturally hold silent about their very own efforts,” it said, claiming the countries had “programmes on the potential use of ‘inspector satellites’ and ‘restore satellites’ as counter-satellite weapons.”
Commenting earlier Friday on the accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia supports “full demilitarisation of area and never basing any kind of weapons in area.”
The US Space Command said the test consisted of Russia’s satellite called Cosmos 2543 injecting an object into orbit.
Russian state media reported in December that a satellite called Cosmos-2542, which was launched in November 2019 by the Russian military, ejected another smaller satellite once in space.
The Russian defence ministry said the inspector-satellite was meant to “monitor the situation of Russian satellites,” but state daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta said it could also “get data from any person else’s satellites.”
The system is the same one that Space Command raised concerns about earlier this year, when it manoeuvred near a US government satellite, said General Jay Raymond, head of US Space Command.
“This is additional proof of Russia’s persevering with efforts to develop and check space-based techniques, and according to the Kremlin’s printed army doctrine to make use of weapons that maintain US and allied area property in danger,” Raymond said in a statement.
It is the latest example of Russian satellites behaving in a manner “inconsistent with their acknowledged mission,” the Space Command statement added.
“This occasion highlights Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer area arms management,” mentioned Christopher Ford, a US assistant secretary of state for arms management.
The assertion additionally got here as China launched a rover to Mars on Thursday, a journey coinciding with an analogous US mission because the powers take their rivalry into deep area.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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