Trump wants to extract resources on the moon: it turned out that the earthlings already have an agreement on the division of space

US President Donald Trump on April 6 signed a decree approving the commercial development of resources on the moon and the planets of the solar system. In Roskosmos, Trump was accused of striving for the seizure of outer space. International law interprets this issue ambiguously. Writes about it with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

According to the text of the document, circulated by the White House press service, the United States does not view outer space as the common property of mankind and believes that Americans should have the right to conduct commercial research, extraction and use of resources in space.

The Department of State and other relevant departments have been instructed to conduct negotiations at the international level to conclude agreements on the development and extraction of resources on the moon and other space bodies.

The decree also emphasizes that the United States does not recognize the legality of the Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and other celestial bodies, adopted by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in December 1979. In this document, in particular, it was indicated that the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind.

“As the United States prepares to return man to the Moon and send him to Mars, this executive order defines U.S. policy regarding the use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, to promote commercial space exploration,” explained the executive secretary of the National Space Agency. Council under US President Scott Pace.

On April 7, Sergei Saveliev, deputy director general of Roscosmos for international cooperation, accused the US authorities of aggressive ambitions.

“Attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to actually seize the territories of other planets hardly set countries up for fruitful cooperation,” Savelyev said.

The head of the department, Dmitry Rogozin, wrote on Twitter that Trump’s decree states “the actual assignment to the United States of the territory of the Moon and other celestial bodies.”

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov also joined the dispute, calling for a “legal assessment of such decisions” to begin with.

“Still, there is some kind of privatization of space in one form or another, but now I find it difficult to say whether this can be regarded as an attempt to privatize space; such attempts would be unacceptable,” Peskov concluded.

Principle of Non-Assignment and Moon Treaties

As explained by a member of the board of directors of the International Institute of Space Law, Elina Morozova, the principle of non-appropriation of celestial bodies is considered basic in international law, but the issue of their natural resources is more complex and can be interpreted ambiguously.

“There are two main positions: one says that the principle of non-appropriation also applies to space resources (that they cannot be used and extracted for national and commercial purposes, except for scientific research); another position states that the principle of non-appropriation of celestial bodies does not regulate the issue of extraction of space resources. This dilemma has been known for a long time,” explains Morozova.

As for the claims to the moon, there are two basic international documents: the Treaty of 1967 on the principles of activity of states for the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and the Agreement on the activities of states on the moon and other celestial bodies (1979 )

The first document was signed by the USA, Britain and the USSR; the second document was ratified by 18 countries, but among them there was not a single member of the GXNUMX or a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The purpose of both treaties was to secure the use of the Moon for peaceful purposes. The 1967 treaty, in particular, emphasized that the Moon, like other celestial bodies, “is not subject to national appropriation, either by the declaration of sovereignty over them, or by use or occupation, or by any other means.”

As Elina Morozova notes, since the United States did not begin to sign the 1979 agreement, today they are trying to find alternative ways to solve the issue of space resources development and emphasize their position.

“Thus, the United States is the initiator of the rule-making process in international law,” she summarizes.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• President of the United States Donald Trump signed a decree in support of the commercial development of resources on the moon and other celestial bodies. The decree states that the United States does not recognize the Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and other celestial bodies, according to which satellite research is considered the property of all mankind. The corporation "Roskosmos" believe that the decree signed by the American leader actually means the seizure of territories of other planets, which does not set the country to cooperate.

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