Building consensus must for effective space regulating regime: PM's special envoy

The Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Mr Rakesh Sood, on Wednesday stressed the need for building consensus among all key space-faring nations to create an effective space regulating regime.

Sood was speaking at Observer Research Foundation after releasing a new ORF publication titled "Awaiting Launch: Perspectives on the Draft ICOC for Outer Space Activities".

Sood said all stake-holders should be taken along on the processes on the Code on merit, equity and safety as it involves use of dual technology.

"If it becomes non-equitable, then building consensus would be very difficult and chances of consensus will diminish," Sood said pointing out that we are trying for sustainability and safety of outer space and not banning use of it.

Sood said India in fact was a pioneer in space programmes in Asia, much ahead of countries like China.

The leadership established very early the Space Commission, ISRO as well as rocket launch centre.

He hoped the book would help give new ideas to policy-makers and negotiators as it was well timed before the next round of Open Ended Consultations later this month.

Later, participating in a panel discussion on the book, Sheel Kant Sharma, former Indian Ambassador and India's Permanent Representative to UN institutions like IAEA, said having achieved major successes, India should now engage with other nations with confidence and position of strength.

Chairing the discussion, Mr HHS Viswanathan, former Indian Ambassador, said though there have been many discourses on code of conduct in space, there have been very little progress. This makes this book important besides the fact that there is very little literature on this crucial area which is closely related to our lives in many ways. The other speaker was Dr.Ajay Lele from IDSA.

The book, edited by Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Daniel A Porras, says while the debates and process on the ICOC code of conduct is important, debates need to focus on the content and address some of the substantive issues that might need to be elaborated and clarified.

Dr Rajagopalan said the two main objectives of the book are one: not only critique the EU code but also come up with solutions; two, move the debates outside Europe.

The European Union has been working on its International Code of Conduct (ICoC) since 2012 and this code has been gaining traction recently. The EU has also instituted Open Ended Consultations which were held in Kiev and Bangkok last year. A third session is scheduled later in May.

Dr Rajagopalan said the two main objectives of the book are one: not only critique the EU code but also come up with solutions; two, move the debates outside Europe.