New Delhi:
Space is for everyone to explore and technology for everyone’s benefit, emphasized European Union’s special envoy for Space Marjolijn van Deelen, who is in New Delhi to explore possibilities and further enhance cooperation in space between India and Europe.
Her visit to India comes weeks after the historic and landmark visit by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the EU College of Commissioners.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Ms Van Deelan spoke about the benefits of space cooperation between India, a nation of more than 1.4 billion people, and the European Union, a bloc of 27 nations. She also underscored the importance of establishing a rules-based order for space to benefit the entire planet, and not let it be weaponized by a few.
WEAPONIZING SPACE
“We all depend on space, but we also see that space assets and space programmes can be threatened by third party actors. Of course we wouldn’t want that to happen,” she said, adding that “We want all nations and future generations to be able to access space, so we need to discuss what are the threats that we both (India and the EU) perceive, and especially what we intend on doing about it.”
Speaking about the urgency for such a rules-based order to be set in place, Ms Van Deelan said, “We really need all nations on board to build an international framework for rules in space. We currently have the Outer Space Treaty in place, but it dates back to 1967. Back then, the participation of the world in space was very different from what it is now. Also, that treaty focuses only on a very limited area of cooperation.”
“It is important that we safeguard that treaty, but it is crucial that we build further rules of the road that our predecessors in the 1960s could not even imagine. So, the approach of the EU is to, in the context of the United Nations, agree on a set of norms and rules and principles of responsible behaviour in space – like not to create debris, not to attack each other’s satellites, not to conduct cyber attacks or hacks or jamming or spoofing,” she added.
‘SPACE IS FOR EVERYONE’ – FRAMING A RULES-BASED ORDER
She went on to acknowledge that such a framework “will take time to set up. But once we have it in place, it will greatly help to check the actions of all nations in space. And if we see anything that isn’t according to those rules or norms, then we can hold further discussions with such actors. But currently we don’t even have that norm.”
She stressed that “It is not just about the participation and agreement of space faring nations. We really need all nations to come on board, because they might be future space faring nations and because they must have the interest to keep space secure since they get the data from from our space programmes.”
Focusing on joint efforts in this regard by India and the European Union, Ms Van Deelan said, “I think we can jointly develop good arguments in this regard so that we have a good international understanding” to begin with.
She also spoke about the purpose of her current visit to India and about a possible India-EU cooperation in the space sector, saying, “My focus is on security and defence, but my colleagues at the European Commission very much focus on the European space programme. And on the Indian side you have quite a number of interlocutors as well – both civilian and defence – so my objective will be that we can come to an agreement on how to engage jointly in the space sector and how we can improve on the cooperation we already have in place.”
CHINA’S AGGRESSIVE POSTURING
Her remarks come at a time when the democratic world, which includes India, the United States, the European Union, are looking to set up a rules-based order for space. Her remarks also come amid reports of heightened spoofing activity against Indian military aircraft along the Line of Actual Control or LAC – the boundary between India and China.
Reports also indicate that as recently as a few weeks ago, Chinese satellites were indulging in ‘dogfights’ in space as part of its threatening and muscular posturing in space. Last month, the US Space Force had observed that “five different (Chinese) objects in space were maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control.” The remarks were made by US Vice Chief of Space Operations General Michael A. Guetlein at a key defence summit.
“That’s what we call dogfighting in space. They (China) are practicing tactics, techniques, and procedures to do in-orbit space operations from one satellite to another,” General Guetlein had said.
A dogfight usually refers to close-range aerial combat between air force fighter jets.
On attaining such capabilities, a nation acquires the ability to destroy, destabilize or disable entire satellites. It gives them the potent to interrupt a rival military’s communications or operations like launching and detecting missiles. It may also be used to interfere and shut down global navigation systems which are used widely across several industries – from logistics and shipping, to trains and motorable traffic, and even for banking and medical purposes.
