Statement by the foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation member states on the current issues related to the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes

We, the ministers of foreign affairs of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan,

realising the importance of maintaining international peace and security at the global and regional levels,

considering the growing risks of further militarisation of outer space and those of arms deployment in space, as well as the need to ensure long-term stability of space activities,

noting the general interest in facilitating the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, based on the norms of international law, including the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (1967),

recognising that the exploration and use of outer space, which is mankind’s common heritage, should be directed at benefitting all nations regardless of the degree of their economic and scientific development,

emphasising the need to solve the problems related to the risks to the long-term stability of space activities by the political and diplomatic methods,

recognising the need to develop universal approaches to international information exchanges on the situation in outer space  in the interests of ensuring the safety of space operations,

stressing the need to enhance the level of transparency and trust between states, which help to address the tasks in the sphere of space exploration and use solely for peaceful purposes,

state the importance of a strict compliance with the existing legal regime providing for the exclusively peaceful use of outer space,

advocate the use of civilian space systems, including commercial ones, as well as the achievements of space science, technologies and services solely for declared peaceful purposes,

reaffirm the inadmissibility of using the civilian space systems and the related ground infrastructure for undeclared purposes,

stress the need for a higher level of coordinating interaction between our states at the relevant international venues,

agreed to intensify the dialogue on a broad range of issues related to strengthening international cooperation between the CSTO member states in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes,

are convinced that our joint efforts alone will be able to preserve outer space for future generations as a peaceful space free from armed conflicts and weapons of any type.