Will Kessler
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Chinese and Indian counterparts at a conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday and Saturday, trying to convince them to talk to Russian officials about not putting a nuclear weapon in space, according to The New York Times.
Blinken told his Chinese and Indian counterparts that the detonation of a nuclear weapon in space targeting US satellites would also harm Chinese and Indian satellites, leading all global communications to fail, according to the NYT. U.S. officials’ concerns over Russia’s possible use of a nuclear weapon in space follow intelligence revealed to the public on Wednesday that the country had new nuclear capabilities that posed a “serious national security threat.”
In meetings with several country officials, Blinken “emphasized that the pursuit of this capability should be a matter of concern,” the State Department said in a statement, according to the NYT. “He will continue raising it in additional meetings at the Munich Security Conference.”
Putting a nuclear weapon in space is in violation of an over 50-year treaty that has so far stopped the proliferation of the weapons into the region, according to the NYT. Besides telecommunications concerns, Blinken also warned that debris from the possible nuclear explosions would pose a threat to low-earth orbit navigation, putting further satellite operations at risk.
Blinken spoke with the two officials, believing that Russia would be more likely to listen to them as opposed to the U.S. due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disdain for the country, according to the NYT. Russia has been conducting military satellite launches since early 2022 when the invasion of Ukraine first began.
Both China and India’s representatives at the conference took in the information, with the Chinese official repeating typical remarks about how it is important to maintain a peaceful use of outer space, according to the NYT.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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