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INFO DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE COLLECTIVE
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 4323

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 002007 
 
SIPDIS 
GENEVA FOR CD DEL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2019 
TAGS: CDG EC ESA EUN EZ FR KACT KTIA MCAP PARM PREL TSPA
UK 
SUBJECT: U.S. COMMENTS ON EU COUNCIL'S DRAFT "CODE OF 
CONDUCT FOR OUTER SPACE ACTIVITIES" 
 
REF: (A) 07 LISBON 002604 (B) 07 STATE 157671 
 
Classified By:  PAMcNerney, Reasons 1.4 (a), (d), (e), and (g) 
 
¶1. (SBU) THIS IS AN ACTION REQUEST.  See paragraph 3 below. 
 
¶2.  (C) BACKGROUND: On December 8, 2008, the European Union 
(EU) Foreign Ministers endorsed a draft proposal for a "Code 
of Conduct for Outer Space Activities" 
(http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/0 8/st17/st17175. 
en08.pdf).  In approving this draft package of voluntary 
transparency and confidence building measures, in which 
Subscribing States would participate on a voluntary basis, 
the Council called for consultations "with key third 
countries that have activities in outer space or have 
interests in outer space activities, with the aim of reaching 
a text that is acceptable to the greatest number of 
countries." 
 
(C) In a November 27, 2008, letter to Acting Under Secretary 
of State for Arms Control and International Security John C. 
Rood, French MFA Director of Strategic Affairs, Security and 
Disarmament Jacques Audibert invited the U.S. to provide the 
EU with further comments.  The French Presidency also 
expressed its interest in pursuing further bilateral 
consultations on the text "to continue to improve it." 
 
(C) In his letter to U/S Rood, Audibert noted "fruitful" 
consultations between the U.S. and EU on two preliminary 
versions of the draft code.  The U.S. received the first 
preliminary draft from the Portuguese Presidency of the EU 
Council in October 2007 (REFTEL A).  The U.S. provided 
"line-in/line-out" comments on this draft in November 2007 
(REFTEL B).  The Department received a second preliminary 
draft of the Code of Conduct from the French Presidency in 
July 2008.  On September 19, 2008, U.S. and EU experts held 
informal consultations in Washington, D.C., during which U.S. 
experts clarified several concerns regarding the second 
preliminary draft. 
 
(C) In November 2008, reflecting a desire to reach an 
expanded consensus, the French Presidency sent advance copies 
of the draft approved by the EU Foreign Ministers to eight 
countries "with activities in outer space or interests in 
outer space," including Canada, Japan, Israel, Brazil, and 
India as well as to the U.S., Russia, and China. 
 
(C) EU experts report that the Czech Presidency will continue 
developing the draft using inputs provided by the U.S. and 
other countries with "activities in outer space or interests 
in outer space."  The ultimate goal of the EU is to present 
the draft Code of Conduct in 2009 to relevant international 
fora, including the Conference on Disarmament, the UN 
Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the UN 
General Assembly.  The EU also is considering the possibility 
of establishing a stand-alone process for adoption modeled on 
the Hague Code of Conduct measures for ballistic missile 
proliferation.  Acting Under Secretary Rood met with his P-3 
counterparts (UK FCO Director General for Defence and 
Intelligence Mariot Leslie and French MFA Director of 
Strategic Affairs Security and Disarmament Jacques Audibert) 
on Thursday, January 8, 2009, and during their discussions on 
the EU-proposed Code of Conduct, he provided them a copy of 
the U.S. non-paper at paragraph 4. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Action Request. For Prague: Embassy is requested to 
hand over the U.S. non-paper (contained in paragraph 4 below) 
to the Czech Presidency of the EU (Mr. Jiri Svoboda, Head of 
the Disarmament and Conventional Arms Unit within the MFA, 
and/or to other appropriate MFA officials) as soon as 
possible.  Embassy also should indicate that the U.S. 
welcomes further exchanges on this topic with the Czech 
Republic and with future EU Presidencies.  Post should note 
 
STATE 00002007  002 OF 005 
 
SUBJECT: U.S. COMMENTS ON EU COUNCIL'S DRAFT "CODE OF 
CONDUCT FOR OUTER SPACE ACTIVITIE 
that the U.S non-paper is marked "For Government Use Only" 
and request that the non-paper be handled in the same manner 
as "Restreint UE" information. 
 
(SBU) For USEU: USEU is requested to hand over the U.S. 
non-paper (contained in paragraph 4 below) to Hlne-Diane 
Dage of the European Commission's Space Policy and 
Coordination Unit and to Zuzana Sutiakov of the General 
Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, or to other 
appropriate officials as soon as possible.  USEU also should 
indicate that the U.S. welcomes further exchanges on this 
topic with EU Council Disarmament (CODUN) experts.  Post 
should note that the U.S. non-paper is marked "For Government 
Use Only" and request that the non-paper be handled in the 
same manner as "Restreint UE" information. 
 
(SBU) For London and Paris: Embassies are requested to hand 
over the U.S. non-paper contained in paragraph 4 to John 
Saltford of the UK FCO and to Rosine Couchoud of the French 
MFA, or to other appropriate FCO or MFA officials.  Embassies 
also should indicate that the U.S. welcomes continued close 
collaboration within the P-3 as well as at the experts level 
on a bilateral basis on approaches to build consensus for 
this draft proposal. 
 
(C) For Berlin, Ottawa, Rome, and Tokyo: Embassies are 
requested to hand over the U.S. non-paper contained in 
paragraph 4 to outer space experts at their Host Nation's 
MFAs.  Embassies should indicate that this is the U.S. 
response to the December 2008 EU's draft "Code of Conduct for 
Outer Space Activities," and that the U.S. welcomes 
opportunities for discussions on specific points of the 
document at future bilateral space security dialogue 
discussions conducted at the experts level. 
 
(C) For USDEL to CD: Following hand over to the Czech 
Republic, USDEL to the Conference on Disarmament is 
authorized to provide courtesy copies of the U.S. non-paper 
contained in paragraph 4 to CD Delegations of EU Member 
States.  USDEL also is authorized to share copies of the 
non-paper with non-EU members of the CD Western Group (WEOG), 
as well as to Brazil and India. 
 
¶4. (SBU) BEGIN TEXT OF U.S. NON-PAPER: 
 
FOR GOVERNMENT USE ONLY 
 
United States Non-Paper 
January 7, 2009 
 
-The United States is pleased to respond to the Presidency of 
the Council of the European Union's request of November 27, 
2008, for further comments on the EU's draft "Code of Conduct 
for Outer Space Activities." 
 
-The United States welcomes the opportunity for substantive 
discussions on outer space transparency and 
confidence-building measures with all established and 
emerging spacefaring nations. 
 
-The United States appreciated the opportunity for detailed 
and fruitful exchanges with European experts on this 
pragmatic and constructive EU initiative.  We are pleased to 
see that the draft approved on December 8-9, 2008, by the 
Council of the European Union (as contained in Council 
document 17175/08 of December 17, 2008), reflects a number of 
U.S.-recommended inputs. 
 
-Mindful of the Council of the European Union's aim of 
reaching a text that is acceptable to the greatest number of 
countries, we must note that several problematic elements 
still remain in the latest draft.  These include three 
provisions that would prevent the United States from 
subscribing to the December 2008 draft text. 
 
-First, the language in the section on "Notification of Space 
Activities" (Section 6.1) of the December 2008 draft calls on 
Subscribing States to provide prior notification of 
"scheduled maneuvers" or "orbital changes and re-entries, as 
 
STATE 00002007  003 OF 005 
 
SUBJECT: U.S. COMMENTS ON EU COUNCIL'S DRAFT "CODE OF 
CONDUCT FOR OUTER SPACE ACTIVITIE 
well as other relevant orbital parameters," regardless of any 
risk of hazard to another nation's space activities. 
--On national security grounds, the U.S. strongly opposes any 
such prior notification provision in a Code of Conduct.  The 
United States believes the implementation of national 
spaceflight safety measures ) including collision avoidance 
and de-confliction ) is sufficient to ensure that space 
activities are conducted in a safe and responsible manner 
that is consistent with national security requirements. 
--With regard to re-entry notifications, the U.S. believes 
any notification regime should be consistent with the 
measures outlined in Annex VI "Risk Object Re-entry Data 
Exchange" to the Terms of Reference of the Inter-Agency Space 
Debris Coordination Committee. 
--Therefore, the U.S. recommends that the first and second 
bullets in Section 6.1 be revised to read: 
---"- scheduled maneuvers or orbital changes, consistent with 
the principles of Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty;" 
---"- high risk re-entry events, consistent with the risk 
object data exchange guidelines of the Inter-Agency Space 
Debris Coordination Committee;" 
 
-Second, the United States also strongly objects to language 
in the draft text regarding "Measures on Space Operations" 
(Section 4.2) that calls on states to refrain from any 
intentional action that "will or might bring about, directly 
or indirectly, the damage or destruction of outer space 
objects8 unless such an action is justified by "imperative 
safety considerations" and/or the post-mission disposal of a 
Subscribing State's own spacecraft to reduce orbital debris. 
--Per the August 2006 U.S. National Space Policy, as well as 
U.S. Presidential guidance endorsed for decades, the U.S. 
would object to any provisions in a proposed Code of Conduct 
that might impair its "freedom of action" in outer space, or 
that would impair the rights of the United States to conduct 
research, development, testing, and operations or other 
activities in space in the pursuit of U.S. national security 
interests.  In effect, the EU's draft "Code of Conduct" is 
attempting to establish an arms control-type constraint ) in 
this case a prohibition except under exceptional 
circumstances ) on operations in space through a 
politically-binding mechanism. 
--The U.S. recommends that the first part of Section 4.2 be 
revised to read: 
---"Subscribing States should, in conducting outer space 
activities: -refrain from any intentional action which will, 
or is likely to bring about, directly or indirectly, the 
damage or destruction of outer space objects unless such 
action is conducted to reduce the creation of outer space 
debris and/or justified by national security considerations 
or imperative public safety considerations;" 
 
-Third, the United States has significant concerns relating 
to the draft language on a "consultation mechanism" (Section 
9.1).  The provision would enable Subscribing States to 
pursue creation of a consultative mechanism to discuss the 
space-related activities of a Subscribing State for the 
purpose of "achieving acceptable solutions regarding measures 
to be adopted in order to prevent or minimize the inherent 
risks." 
--Although the proposed Code of Conduct is only voluntary and 
not legally-binding, a lack of clarity in the purpose, 
limitations, and criteria for establishing such a 
consultative mechanism could create an opportunity for states 
to conduct "fishing expeditions" against legitimate U.S. and 
allied military and intelligence space activities. 
--In order to avoid such a risk, the U.S. strongly recommends 
indicating that a "Subscribing State" asking for 
consultations should be directly affected by the outer space 
activity of specific concern.  Such a qualification for the 
first Subscribing State requesting consultations would be 
consistent with the principle in the EU Draft that other 
Subscribing States who desire to participate in the 
consultations must "be affected by the risk." 
--The U.S. recommends that the first bullet in Section 9.1 be 
revised to read: 
---"A Subscribing State that is directly affected by certain 
outer space activities conducted by one or more Subscribing 
State(s) and has reason to believe that those activities are, 
 
STATE 00002007  004 OF 005 
 
 
-Lastly, the United States has a significant concern related 
to the draft language that calls on the Subscribing States 
that are involved in this consultative mechanism to "seek 
solutions based on an equitable balance of interests." 
--The U.S. supports an approach for consultations based upon 
international law, including the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, 
that would be guided by the principle of resolving concerns 
with "due regard to the corresponding interests" of other 
spacefaring nations. 
--The U.S. recommends that the fourth bullet in Section 9.1 
be revised to read: 
---"The Subscribing States participating in the consultations 
should seek to resolve concerns based upon international 
law." 
 
-The United States has a number of additional substantive 
concerns outlined below that will require resolution before 
the U.S. can support the December 2008 draft text. 
 
-The United States has significant concerns about the 
widespread use of language connoting a binding obligation, 
such as "shall" and "will," in the proposed non-binding Code 
of Conduct.  The use of such language in a non-binding 
document is contrary to established practice; for example, 
the Hague Code of Conduct, which is not binding under 
international law, does not use binding language.  The United 
States would welcome the opportunity to work with the EU to 
re-draft the language to reflect properly the non-binding 
nature of the proposed Code of Conduct. 
 
-The United States has a substantive concern related to the 
draft language on "mechanism to investigate proven incidents 
affecting space objects" (Section 9.2). 
--The U.S. recommends that Section 9.2 be revised to read, in 
its entirety: 
---"In addition, the Subscribing States may consider the 
desirability and practicability of establishing an 
appropriate mechanism for the voluntary resolution of 
questions arising from reports of possible acts of harmful 
interference with space activities, or other activities 
inconsistent with the existing framework regulating outer 
space activities, that may be brought by a Subscribing State 
with direct economic, civil, or national security interests." 
----The recommended language above adapts language from the 
2002 Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile 
Proliferation (HCOC), to which the United States and European 
Union nations have subscribed. 
 
-Additionally, the United States has a substantive concern 
regarding its subscription to a Code of Conduct that 
specifically calls on a Subscribing State (e.g., the United 
States) to reaffirm its commitment to a treaty (i.e., the 
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) that is not yet in force for 
any state and that the United States does not support 
(Section 3.1).  Therefore, the U.S. is opposed to any 
reference to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. 
--The United States is an Original Party to the 1963 Treaty 
Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer 
Space and Under Water, which obligates Parties to prohibit, 
to prevent, and not to carry out any nuclear weapons test 
explosion, or any other nuclear explosion, in outer space. 
--The United States has maintained its moratorium on 
explosive nuclear testing and has supported a voluntary 
testing moratorium by all states. 
--The U.S. recommends that Section 3.1 be revised to read: 
---"(a) the existing framework regulating outer space 
activities to which Subscribing States are a Party to, inter 
alia:" 
-and, in the sixth sub-bullet: 
---"The prohibitions on nuclear explosions in outer space 
 
STATE 00002007  005 OF 005 
 
 
-Finally, the United States notes that the implementation of 
the organizational structure described in "IV. Organisational 
Aspects" should be carried out without duplicating the 
efforts of existing international organizations and their 
roles and responsibilities under the existing legal framework 
relating to outer space activities. 
 
-The United States welcomes the opportunity for continued 
dialogue with EU experts on these concerns.  In these 
discussions, we also would propose to discuss approaches for 
joint collaboration with other like-minded spacefaring 
nations to advance this initiative and to enhance this 
proposal's potential for reinforcing the principle of free 
access to, and use of, outer space in the interest of 
maintaining international peace and security. 
 
FOR GOVERNMENT USE ONLY 
 
END TEXT OF U.S. NON-PAPER. 
 
¶5. (U) Any inquiries on this subject should be referred to 
the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation 
(PoC: Richard Buenneke,  1-202-647-3731; 
buennekerh@state.gov). 
RICE