“During a meeting on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Sergey Lavrov and Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré signed a joint statement that they will not be the first to place weapons in space,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday on the Telegram network about negotiations with Burkina Faso .
On the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York, Lavrov also signed this declaration with the head of Malian diplomacy, Abdoulaye Diop, TASS reported already on Thursday. She added that “dozens of countries” have already signed this Russian initiative.
Russian satellites for African juntas
At the same time, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announced an agreement with Russia that will allow them to acquire telecommunications and surveillance satellites, the British station BBC reported already on Tuesday. The trio of West African countries, which are now ruled by military juntas struggling with Islamist insurgents, have been using the services of Russian mercenaries and military aid from Moscow for a long time.
“Ministers from the three countries met on Monday with representatives of the Russian aviation and space agency Roskosmos in Mali’s capital, Bamako, to discuss the agreement. According to Malian Finance Minister Alouséni Sanou, the acquired technologies will strengthen border surveillance and national security in all three countries,” the BBC wrote.
The deployment of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in space is forbidden by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which is signed by 115 states, including Russia and the United States. Nevertheless, in April of this year, Moscow vetoed the UN resolution, which called on states to prevent arms races in space, and in effect encouraged compliance with the Space Treaty. Beijing abstained from voting.
