United Nations COPUOS/T.518

Committee on the Peaceful Unedited transcriptUses of Outer Space

518th MeetingWednesday, 2 June 2004, 10 a.m.Vienna

UNREVISED ADVANCE COPY

Chairman: Mr. R. González (Chile)

The meeting was called to order at 10.18 a.m.

The CHAIRMAN (interpretation from Spanish): Good morning distinguished delegates. I am particularly pleased and honoured to chair this brief, at least brief for me, session with the very distinguished company of the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, to whom I would like to most warmly welcome. His presence somehow underscores and ratifies the significance for the world agenda the topic of space. And clearly today, without the powerful inclusion of space technology on other issues included on the agenda of the United Nations, without that we would not in any way be able to make a concerted and cooperative effort, taking appropriate measures to overcome the issues which impact a large part of humanity. And thus, once again, we must reiterate, for that matter, as reflected in the Millennium Declaration and its objective, half of the planet’s population lives with less than two dollars a day and to say that they are living is almost a surrealistic way of putting it as I would say to you that if you try to live with less than two dollars a day and you find a way to do it, I would love to have the formula. It would be helpful to everyone to have that formula. To help overcome that kind of situation, the presence of an instrument of the civilian applications of space technology are very important and in that context, the fact that we have with us today the President of the General Assembly, is an event which clearly, I am sure we all especially appreciate and thus I would like to ensure him not only of our cooperation but more we assure him of the fact that we stand behind him and all other relevant authorities in the United Nations system

so that we can increasingly include the subject of space technology on the world agenda.

I am also pleased an honour to welcome all of you to the Vienna International Centre and I now officially declare open the forty-seventh session and the 518th meeting of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

As you are all no doubt aware, the Committee will shortly elects its officers for the next two-year term in accordance with paragraph 12 of General Assembly resolution 58/89 and the agreement reached at the forty-sixth session of the Committee in 2003.

With the Committee’s permission, I will continue to preside over this meeting until the new Chair has been duly elected, at which time it will be my duty and pleasure to invite him to assume the Chair.

Before commencing with the election of its officers, the Committee should adopt its agenda for this session.

Adoption of the agenda (agenda item 2)

Distinguished delegates, you have before you for your approval and adoption the provisional agenda for the session, contained in document A/AC.105/L.256. This provisional agenda has been prepared on the basis of the agreement reached at the 2003 session of the Committee, which was subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 58/89. An indicative schedule of work is set

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In its resolution 50/27 of 6 December 1995, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that, beginning with its thirty-ninth session, the Committee would be provided with unedited transcripts in lieu of verbatim records. This record contains the texts of speeches delivered in English and interpretations of speeches delivered in the other languages as transcribed from taped recordings. The transcripts have not been edited or revised.

Corrections should be submitted to original speeches only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned, within one week of the date of publication, to the Chief, Conference Management Service, Room D0708, United Nations Office at Vienna, P.O. Box 500, A-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum.

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out in the annex of that document. Please note that the annotations and the indicative schedule of work are not part of the agenda for adoption by the Committee and we should proceed with the adoption of the agenda itself.

Thus, if I hear no objections, may I take it that the agenda is adopted?

It is so decided.

Distinguished delegates, before turning to election of officers, I would just like to say a few words of farewell because as opposed to what some delegates might think, I will not be sitting in this chair indefinitely. Please be calm because as soon as I have finished with my words of farewell I promise I will leave this seat and turn over the chair.

I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude for the cooperation provided me over the last four years by all delegations without exception. Indeed, I would say that after 20 years of participating in this Committee, I have made a number of very good friends and I see their faces here today amongst us and as a new Chairman will be taking over, I do not want to mention those specific names, but as a slogan in my country says, “with one death, one opening”. Having said that, I am truly very thankful for all the cooperation provided to me by all of you. We have made significant progress and more specifically, we have geared the agenda towards to what I would call the socio-economic aspects of this matter. And from my point of view, although not all delegations share this view, I am convinced that we have created a framework to provide for better human security and I use that term assuming full responsibility for it.

If you read the introductory statements that I have made as Chairman at the General Assembly in the last four years, you will see in every single one of them there is a reference to human security as a fundamental concept for our deliberations and to my recollection, no delegation objected to that concept and so I just ask that you go and look at the archives and see whether or not what I say is true about the reference to human security.

I believe that we have made significant headway in a number of areas. We have attempted to seek agreement on two kinds of countries. This is a committee which is, objectively speaking, asymmetric in nature. Some master space technology and others are passive beneficiaries of space technology. And our work, indeed, is to attempt to bring greater inter-connectiveness between those who have and those who

have by mandate of the 1967 Space Treaty and other relevant instruments, such as that of 1996 on International Cooperation. By virtue of those treaties, we must bring technology to our citizens and thus in that way provide for greater democratic density so that all can have access to medicine, urban planning, so that all the problems which so deeply affect us, such as contagious diseases, all those ills which ail such a large part of humanity and which, in the context of this Committee, we have attempted to address how countries may contribute towards resolving these problems and how we can contribute towards closing the gap.

Some times we have had intense discussions but the respect for others positions has always prevailed in these intense discussions. At the same time, I believe that we have generated critical mass so that my successor, whom we do not know who that will be, of course, because they have not been appointed yet, but in any case, I think we have set the stage or generated critical mass so that our successor finds a sound committee to work with, sound not only in general terms but also mentally and politically in terms of political decisiveness to continue moving forward in this area.

Once again, thank you to all of you. I would like to thank the Secretariat and most especially to the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, Dr. Camacho, who has made an invaluable contribution to all our efforts, and this is not just for developing countries or Latin American countries but he was extremely objective, patient, cautious and effective in his endeavours.

I would also like to thank the interpreters who have been at my side for many sessions and who have attempted to interpret my thoughts which at times can be rather dangerous and I request their efficiency in that regard.

I would like to thank the conference staff and those in the room, everyone around me and who have been invaluable support and these are not just empty words. I could not have done very much. I could not have done anything without all of these people.

And I would also like to congratulate the Committee on its openness in terms of involving new members and it proved its openness by virtue of the fact that issues that have been pending have now become a reality. My disappointment and frustration has been for all of those who have not paid close enough attention to this Committee. Historically, and I underscore that, systematically, they have not been

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present during the deliberations of this Committee and they are even members of the Committee, so I do feel frustration and disappointment with regard to those delegations. There is no point in mentioning them by name but it is sad to note that some countries which, at a given point in time, played a vital role in this Committee, just let it go. It seems that for ordinary citizens in their countries the applications of space technology are fundamental, for example, dealing with natural disasters, and that is a subject which is particularly topical now, 3,000 people just passed in Central America and the Caribbean, with the Dominican Republic. We are talking about something that happened just a day or two ago and a small town in Chile called Leyo(?), it is a very small town, perhaps Ambassador Lichem might have known it when he was Ambassador in Chile. It is one of the poorest regions of the country and it was struck by some kind of, and it was not technically, but it was some kind of tsunami. And there, in addition to being one of the poorest areas of my country, it suffered an additional injury, almost, to poverty with this tsunami. It was truly adding fuel to the fire.

I also feel somewhat disappointed for those countries who did not realize the applications of space technology for their countries’ benefit and whose lack of efforts are to the detriment of the citizens that they are supposed to be representing because to be a diplomat is to actually represent one’s true country.

Having said that I would like to conclude my reflections on the matter.

Election of officers (agenda item 3)

I would now like to turn to item 3 of the agenda, Election of Officers.

In paragraph 12 of its resolution 58/89 of 9 December 2003, the General Assembly agreed that the Committee, at the beginning of its session in 2004, should conduct the election of the officers agreed upon by the Committee at its forty-sixth session. At that session, in 2003, the Committee agreed that Dr. Adigun Ade Abiodun of Nigeria should be elected Chairman of the Committee. Alternative Ambassador Ciro Arévalo Yepes of Colombia will be the First Vice Chairman and Mr. Parviz Tarikhi of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be elected its Second Vice Chairman and Rapporteur for the next two-year term, starting with this session.

I do not wish to ask if there are any objections because I would just like to assume that the Committee will elect these officers by acclamation.

Unfortunately, there were no objections. No, thank you. Fortunately there were no objections. That was the fault of the interpreters I might add.

I would like to warmly congratulate Dr. Abiodun on his election and in addition to being a very great friend, I have also seen how over many years since UNISPACE ’82, is that correct, when he began working with us as an expert on space affairs and his outstanding work in the area of space affairs began to be visible. I would like to be frank. I should say that from now on with reticence(?) I invite him to assume the Chair but I also do so with great friendship.

Mr. A. A. ABIODUN (Nigeria): Distinguished delegates and representatives, Your Excellency, Ambassador of St. Lucia and President of the General Assembly, guests(?), our ___________ (not clear) to this forty-seventh session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. My predecessor has just completed the election of officers, although the briefing before me states we now to turn to the election of the First Vice Chairman and Second Vice Chairman and Rapporteur. So I would like to believe that they have been duly elected and I please invite them to come to the podium and take their seats. And that is Ambassador Arévalo Yepes of Colombia as First Vice Chairman and Mr. Parviz Tarikhi of the Islamic Republic of Iran as Second Vice Chairman.

With your clapping, I assume and accept that there are no objections.

It is so decided.

To both of you gentlemen, I extend to you my warmest congratulations on your election and I look forward to working with you in the next two years.

Attendance by non-members of the Committee

Distinguished delegates, in continuing I would like to inform this Committee that I have received requests from the Governments of Angola, the Holy See, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Switzerland and Thailand seeking permission to attend the current session of the Committee as observers. I therefore suggest that in conformity with past practices, we invite the representatives of these States to attend the current session and to address the Committee as appropriate. That is, of course, without prejudice to further requests of this nature and does not involve any decision of the Committee concerning status. It is,

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indeed, a courtesy that we customarily extend to such delegations.

Please, these delegations may take their seats.

Statement by the Chairman (agenda item 4)

Distinguished delegates and representatives, Your Excellency, the next item on the agenda is the Chairman’s statement and so I would take this opportunity to address you on this occasion.

Distinguished delegates and representatives, Your Excellency, the Ambassador of St. Lucia and distinguished President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the last time I appeared before you all on this podium, I presented to you, at the fortieth session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS, the final report of Action Team 11 that addressed the promotion of sustainable development by applying the results of space research, which is one of the 33 recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Also from this very podium, on 16 July 1999, I bade you all farewell as the United Nations Expert on Space Applications, and as a member of your Secretariat, after over 22 years of service to you. However, in your wisdom last year, upon the nomination of my Government, the Federal Government of the Republic of Nigeria, and the endorsement of the African Union, all you here elected me, by consensus, as your Chairman for the next two years beginning at this the forty-seventh session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

In this connection, I wish to pay a special tribute to the Africa Group here in Vienna for its invaluable contributions to the election process. In so doing, I wish also to recognize the contributions of Morocco to the work of this Committee on behalf of Africa through its membership of the Bureau of COPUOS for the past six years. As we all know, COPUOS is a unique General Assembly organ that carries out its work in its own ways and specifically by consensus. All the delegations of the Africa Group, the Asia Group, the Eastern European Group, the Latin America and Caribbean Group and the Western European and Others Group contributed to the consensus building that led to my election and that of the Vice Chairmen, the First Vice Chairman and the Second Vice Chairman. I offer you all my sincere thanks. I must also recognize and pay tribute to our great host, Austria, for the unique and invaluable roles it has played and continues to play in the life of COPUOS. I am particularly pleased to see right here in this room Ambassador Peter Jankowitsch who was

the Chairman of this distinguished Committee when I first appeared among you at the back of the podium in 1977.

Your Excellency, Ambassador Walther Lichem, an illustrious son of Austria, you devoted all your talents and skills to reserve the COPUOS Bureaux succession challenges that faced this Committee in the recent past. We all salute you for your uncommon accomplishments for COPUOS.

And to my own countrymen and women that constitute the delegation of Nigeria to this Committee, I greet you all warmly and salute you. You are responsible for my being on this podium today as Chairman of COPUOS and I thank you and our Government and people back home for your support and confidence in me.

And in so doing also, I would like to recognize amongst us here this morning my own wife, Dr. Judith Burgess(?) Abiodun, thank you.

I am honoured to be elected Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. I thank you all for entrusting me with this responsibility and I hereby assure all of you of my commitment to this Committee and its success.

Ambassador Raimundo González of Chile, you passed the baton on to me and in your last farewell statement you said two things which were contradictory. First you said at the forty-sixth session the Committee decided to elect a number of people and then later on you said, I do not know who they are, but I know you do. And I believe that in your term of office here, you skilfully guided the work of this Committee and led the Committee towards many achievements in the past four years as its Chairman. On behalf of the Committee please accept our sincere congratulations. Among other things, Ambassador González was instrumental in the process that led to the agreement reached by the General Assembly to conduct the five-year review of the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III, otherwise known as UNISPACE III + 5 Review, and to establish a working group of this Committee to prepare its report for the General Assembly’s review.

You will recollect, Ambassador González, that through your letter to the Secretary-General, he took an initiative to bring to the attention of the United Nations conferences the benefits of space science and technology and their applications in social, economic and cultural development and how space technology can assist in achieving the goals of these conferences in

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these areas. This could lead to the inter-connectivity of efforts by both the Committee and relevant United Nations entities to bring the benefits of space applications down to Earth, to focus more on human dimensions of space activities.

On behalf of the Committee, I also convey the gratitude of the Committee to Mr. Driss El Hadani of Morocco, who served as the First Vice Chairman, and Messrs. Harijono Djojodihardjo and Susetyo Mulyodrono, both of Indonesia, who consecutively served as the Second Vice Chairman and Rapporteur of this Committee. With their support and commitment to international cooperation, the Committee resolved a number of challenging matters it faced in the past years.

At this juncture, and on behalf of the Committee, I extend the appreciation of this Committee to Dr. Sergio Camacho, the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, and to all the staff of the Office for Outer Space Affairs for the hard work they have done in preparing this forty-seventh session of COPUOS.

Distinguished delegates and representatives, if you were to do the arithmetic and reflect on the history of this august body, you all will arrive at the fact that this year marks the forty-fifth anniversary of the establishment by the General Assembly of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space as one of its main permanent subsidiary bodies, and that is why it is very unique that we have the President of the General Assembly with us this morning. Since its establishment, the Committee has continuously expanded and strengthened international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

Reaching agreement on complex issues in a multilateral body while maintaining the principle of consensus often takes time and has certainly presented a number of challenges to this Committee. In the spirit of cooperation, the Committee resolved these challenges as they manifested themselves, a process that has enabled it to attain substantive progress in its work with an attendant list of impressive accomplishments. For example, the Committee was instrumental in the adoption by the General Assembly of five United Nations treaties, two declarations and three sets of legal principles, all of which collectively have established the international legal framework for space activities. As you are all aware, the Committee was also instrumental in the organization of three United Nations conferences on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space. The United Nations Programme on Space Applications emerged as one of

the main by-products of the first of these global space conferences and it has grown and continues to provide effective ways and means of developing and strengthening the indigenous capacity of developing countries to master and apply relevant aspects of space science and technology in their social and economic development programmes. The latest United Nations Conference on Outer Space, otherwise known as UNISPACE III, held in 1999, provided an additional impetus for focusing international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space on the enhancement of human development.

The Committee continues to provide an essential multilateral forum for exchange of information on developments in space science and technology and their applications as well as policy directions pursued by countries and international organizations engaged in space-related activities. In recent years, the focus of work of this Committee has been consistent with the efforts of the United Nations as a whole in achieving internationally agreed development goals. This has been manifested by the efforts of the Committee, that of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, particularly through its capacity-building activities, as well as those of the Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities, which serves as a focal point for the inter-agency coordination and cooperation in space-related activities within the United Nations system.

This year is also a milestone in the work of the Committee. As you all know, the General Assembly will review the progress attained to date in the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III. The General Assembly will also consider further actions and initiatives that should be undertaken and has accordingly requested the Committee to submit a report to it at this year’s session. Through its report to the General Assembly, the Committee should highlight the achievements in the past five years and propose the way forward for the full implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations. At this session of our Committee, we should finalize our report to the General Assembly for its consideration in October this year.

All of us here today certainly know that the preparation of UNISPACE III + 5 report has been a challenging and painstaking task. In this connection, and on behalf of this Committee, I convey my appreciation to you, Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden, the Chairman of the Working Group established by the Committee to prepare the report for UNISPACE III + 5 Review, for your dedication and tireless efforts in the past two years to lead the work of the Working Group,

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and to the Secretariat, under the leadership of Mr. Sergio Camacho, for the untiring support given to Mr. Hedman and his Working Group in the discharge of their responsibilities. All of us here should give our full support to the Working Group, just as its Chairman and the Secretariat are doing, in order that the Working Group can complete expeditiously the final draft of the UNISPACE III + 5 report for adoption by this Committee at this session.

On behalf of the Committee, I also take this opportunity to congratulate all the 12 Action Teams that have carried out major work on the implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations and in identifying further actions to be undertaken. As you are all aware, nine of the 12 Action Teams have submitted their final reports to this Committee and its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. Entities of the United Nations system and inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations also deserve our thanks for their invaluable contributions to the work of the Action Teams. Summaries of the work of the Action Teams can be found in the UNISPACE III + 5 draft report.

Distinguished delegation, I will shortly review the highlights of the work that is before this Committee at this session, in addition to the implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations, which I have just addressed. But before doing so, and on behalf of the Committee, I hereby extend a warm welcome and congratulations to Mr. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, the new Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, a Romanian Ambassador to Russia, and Mr. Sergio Marchisio, the new Chairman of the Legal Subcommittee for successfully leading the work of their respective Subcommittees. Their individual qualifications, solid experience and understanding of the issues before these two Subcommittees were demonstrated in the skilful manner in which they guided their work.

Distinguished delegates, we will now turn our attention to the work conducted by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee this year, as well as to some other items that should be of interest to this Committee. Among those issues addressed by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee this year are the following: recommendations of UNISPACE III and the United Nations Programme on Space Applications; matters relating to remote sensing of the Earth by satellites including applications for developing countries and the monitoring of the environment; space debris; the use of nuclear power sources in outer space; space-system-based tele-medicine; implementation of an integrated

space-based global natural disaster management system; spin-off benefits of space technology; and the COSPAR/IAF Symposium. Brief details of these efforts follow.

On the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III, the Subcommittee reconvened the Working Group of the Whole under the able chairmanship of Mr. Mohammed Nasim Shah of Pakistan. Mr. Shah, we congratulate you for skilfully guiding the Working Group to achieve progress on this important matter.

The United Nations Programme on Space Applications continues to play an important role in implementing the recommendations of UNISPACE III, particularly in developing the capacity of developing countries to apply space technologies to support sustainable development efforts. On the basis of proposals made by the Office for Outer Space Affairs, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee recommended activities of the Programme for approval by this Committee at this session as contained in the report of the Subcommittee.

May I draw the attention of all distinguished delegates to the appeal of the Subcommittee to all Member States to consider providing long-term fellowships at their respective space-related institutions for in-depth education in all areas of space science and technology for the benefit of deserving individuals from developing countries in need. In this connection, the Subcommittee already noted and has called the attention of delegates to the fact that the number of long-term fellowships has decreased in the past years. We need to redress this downward spiral. The essential roles the Programme plays in assisting developing countries to build their space applications-related capacities are well known to all of us and it is the responsibility of members of this Committee to give their full and unflinching support to the Programme as it tries to carry out its mandate. On this occasion, I wish to congratulate the Expert on Space Applications and her staff for the work of the Programme to support development efforts in the developing countries.

Matters relating to remote sensing of the Earth by satellites, including applications for developing countries and monitoring of the Earth’s environment continue to feature prominently in the agenda of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. We all k now that Earth observation satellite data and images support activities in many key development areas, such as water resources management, coastal zone monitoring, fishing, geological studies, land use and mapping, agriculture, natural disaster prevention and mitigation,

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response and relief, just to name a few. Building capacity in the application of remote sensing technology, particularly the developing countries, is critical to the acceleration of their social and economic development.

This Committee can play a crucial role in promoting the sharing of expertise and knowledge in remote sensing through projects carried out through international cooperation. In this regard, I am pleased to note the international collaborative initiatives taken by many entities in this area, such as those by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, otherwise known as CEOS, the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, otherwise known as ISPRS, and the Integrated Global Observing Strategy, IGOS, Partnership, as well as the Ad Hoc Group on Earth Observations.

Space debris also remains a major agenda item of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. This year, the Subcommittee established a Working Group to consider comments from Member States on the proposals on debris mitigation last year, in 2003, by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, otherwise known as IADC, to the Subcommittee. On behalf of COPUOS, I hereby thank both Mr. Claudio Portelli of Italy and Mr. Petr Lála of the Czech Republic for efficiently guiding the discussions in the Working Group, as its Chairman and Acting Chairman respectively. The status of these deliberations will be presented to this Committee at this session when we consider this item.

The Working Group on the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space made progress in preparing a draft set of potential implementation options for establishing an international technically-based framework of goals and recommendations for the safety of planned and currently foreseeable nuclear power source applications in outer space. As agreed by the Subcommittee, the Working Group continues inter-sessional work and will be holding its next informal meeting on the margins of this forty-seventh session of the Committee to advance its work. We are all grateful to Mr. Sam Harbison of the United Kingdom, the Chairman of this Working Group, for his leadership.

This year, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee also began its consideration of space-system-based tele-medicine under a three-year work plan. In this regard, the Subcommittee heard a number of technical presentations and shared experiences and expertise in this field. The Subcommittee is working towards the preparation of possible bilateral and

multilateral projects that could further the development of space-system-based tele-medicine applications.

As we are all fully aware, health is one of the priority areas of internationally agreed development goals. I would like to underscore the importance of the work of the Subcommittee in considering space-system-based tele-medicine, which has broad applications and benefits for improving health and medical services around the world, particularly in remote and rural areas.

The Subcommittee also considered the implementation of an integrated, space-based global natural disaster management system. Through the global news media, we have all witnessed in recent days the various natural disasters that have befallen Iran, in the form of an earthquake, as well as the Dominican Republic and Haiti, in terms of floods, and the attendant ravages on life, property and natural resources base of the communities. By its actions on this critical issue, this Committee can make a difference and a real impact through the use of space technologies that can help predict, mitigate and manage natural disasters. I am happy to note that following the work that it had accomplished during the past three years in this important area, the Subcommittee reached agreement to consider space-system-based disaster management support under a three-year work plan for the period from 2005 to 2007. I am also pleased to note that following the agreement reached by the Committee last year, the Industry Workshop on Satellites for Disaster Communications: Saving Lives form Natural Disasters will be held on Monday afternoon, 7 June next week. I look forward to these presentations by satellite operators on the capabilities of their systems and their views on how satellite-based communications could best contribute to natural disaster prediction, mitigation and relief.

Let me interrupt my statement briefly and because the President of the General Assembly has a scheduled press conference but is going to address us after we have finished and we expect His Excellency to be back with us to address us.

Distinguished delegates and representatives, I would like to continue where we are expecting the return of the President of the General Assembly. In that connection, I would like to reflect on the fact that during this year’s session of the Subcommittee, that is the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, the Committee on Space Research, otherwise known as COSPAR, and the International Astronautical Federation, otherwise known as IAF, organized a symposium on Smaller Size, Wider Use: Small

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Satellite Applications in Agriculture, Health and Human Security. On behalf of this Committee, I thank both COSPAR and IAF for their continued support for the work of the Subcommittee.

The draft agenda for next year’s session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, as recommended by the Working Group of the Whole, and endorsed by the Subcommittee itself, will include Space-Systems Based Disaster Management Support and Near-Earth Objects, both to be considered under the three-year work plan of the Subcommittee, as well as Support to Proclaim 2007 as the International Geophysical Year and International Heliophysical Year. These will be discussed for one session in the year 2005.

On this occasion, distinguished delegates, I would like to turn now to the work of the Legal Subcommittee. And in this connection, may I draw your attention to the work accomplished at its forty-third session which included: status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space; definition and delimitation of outer space; examination of the preliminary draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment; the practices of States and international organizations in registering space objects; United Nations Workshop on Space Law; and the Symposium on New Developments and the Legal Framework Covering the Exploitation of the Resources of the Moon.

The Legal Subcommittee reconvened its Working Groups on Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties on Outer Space; Definition and Delimitation of Outer Space; and Examination of the Preliminary Draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment.

I am pleased to note that the Working Group on Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties on Outer Space reached agreement on a draft General Assembly resolution on the application of the concept of the launching State, as well as the draft letter of the Secretary-General to Member States that have not yet become parties to the space treaties.

Under the agenda item on the preliminary draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets of the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, the Legal Subcommittee considered whether the United Nations could serve as the Supervisory Authority under the future Protocol on Space Assets. The Subcommittee also examined the

relationship between the terms of the preliminary draft Protocol and the rights and obligations of States under the legal regime applicable to outer space. The Working Group on this item agreed to establish an open-ended ad hoc working group to continue the consideration of the matter between the forty-third and forty-fourth sessions of the Subcommittee with a view to preparing a report, including the text of a draft resolution, to be submitted to the Subcommittee for consideration at its session in the year 2005. The Working Group also agreed to appoint The Netherlands as the coordinator of this open-ended ad hoc working group.

On behalf of this Committee, I hereby congratulate Mr. Vassilios Cassapoglou of Greece, Ms. Déborah Salgado Campaña of Ecuador and Mr. Vladimir Kopal of the Czech Republic for the skilful guidance they all provided as Chairpersons of these three Working Groups.

This year, the Legal Subcommittee also began its consideration of the practices of States and international organizations in registering space objects in accordance with the work plan agreed upon in 2003. The initiation of the debate under this agenda item would contribute to enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of international space law.

The Second United Nations Workshop on Space Law was hosted by the Republic of Korea in Daejeon in November last year. The Workshop increased awareness among government and public officials of the Asia-Pacific region, of the importance of adherence to and implementation of the outer space treaties as well as incorporating them in their national legislation. I sincerely thank the organizers of the Workshop that was held in Daejeon and I am pleased to note that the next United Nations Workshop on Space Law will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 22 to 25 November of this year, for the benefit of Latin America and the Caribbean Member States.

During this year’s session of the Legal Subcommittee, the International Institute of Space Law and the European Centre for Space Law organized a Symposium on New Developments and the Legal Framework Covering the Exploitation of the Resources of the Moon. The Symposium was very informative and it generated great interest among the delegates of the Subcommittee. On behalf of this Committee, I hereby commend the efforts of both IISL and ECSL for organizing the Symposium.

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At this juncture, distinguished delegates and representatives, I would like to turn our attention to other matters before us.

In this connection, we have ways to promote regional and international cooperation; the role that space technology could play in the implementation of the recommendations that emerged from the World Summit on Sustainable Development; space and society, with emphasis on education; space and water; and spin-off benefits of space exploration.

All of you would recollect that under the agenda items on ways and means of maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes, the General Assembly agreed at its 2003 session that the Committee could consider ways to promote regional and interregional cooperation based on experiences stemming from the Space Conference of the Americas. Under this agenda item, the Assembly also agreed that the Committee could consider the role that space technology could play in the implementation of the recommendations that emerged from the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa. In this connection, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the initiative taken by the Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities in compiling a list of space-related initiatives and programmes carried out by relevant entities of the United Nations and by members of this Committee that respond to specific recommendations contained in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit. I hereby urge members of this Committee to contribute relevant information to this list in order to make it as comprehensive and complete as possible so that this list could be presented as a response by the space community to the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit.

Certainly, but globally, applications of different aspects of space science and technology are making important contributions to the improvements in our daily lives. It offers opportunities for Member States to accelerate their development process. Indeed, space endeavours could help reinforce a culture of international cooperation. Space exploration also motivates and inspires young people to study science and engineering. As you are all aware, this is the main focus of the World Space Week which you all recommended to the General Assembly in the year 1999, that is 4 to 10 October, and the General Assembly approved at its session in 1999, that the World Space Week should be executed annually and globally by the Spaceweek International Association, to inspire every student on the planet to excel in learning and educate every adult about how space improves their daily lives. The Office for Outer Space

Affairs has kindly published the 2003 Spaceweek International Association Report on World Space Week and each delegation at this session of COPUOS will receive a copy of this Report.

Education is another priority area of our work and of the work of the United Nations as a whole, particularly in meeting the goals enshrined in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. I urge all delegates to actively participate in the deliberations of this Committee on Space and Education that will start this year, at this session, under the three-year work plan, as part of our consideration of the agenda item on Space and Society. In this connection, we will also review, at this session, efforts made by Member States and organizations to bring space into education and to develop human resources in space science and technology. We should also aim at identifying elements that have contributed to the success of those efforts as well as pinpoint the corresponding impediments and discuss possible means of how to eliminate those impediments.

You all will also recollect that last year, this Committee agreed to include Space and Water as a new item on the agenda of our Committee for this year. When we get to this agenda item, I will invite Austria, the main sponsor of the subject, to lead our deliberation. I also understand from the Secretariat that a number of technical presentations are on course for our attention during our consideration of this agenda item. We are all looking forward to being educated by them. As evident from the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, water resources management is one of the most promising areas where space applications has and can continue to make significant contributions to development efforts globally, particularly in the developing countries. In this connection, we all should recollect that the General Assembly in its resolution 58/217 of December last year proclaimed the 10-year period starting from 2005 as the International Decade on Water for Life. Through our discussion on space and water, the Committee should consider contributing to the activities to be carried out during that decade and also to the implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in the area of water resources management.

I wish to take this opportunity to remind us all that many countries of the world do not have adequate irrigation and water management systems and suffer from drought and floods every year. The examples of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which I cited earlier, are shocking reminders of such grave

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situations. I humbly appeal to all Member States, entities of the United Nations system, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations involved in the use and management of water resources to actively contribute to this important work of the Committee.

Distinguished delegates, at its fiftieth session, the General Assembly agreed that this Committee should continue its consideration of the item, Spin-Off Benefits of Space Technology: Review of Current Status. The General Assembly also requested this Committee to consider the ways to improve the participation of its Member States and entities with observer status in its work. We would discuss this earlier in the statement.

But for now, and for your information, on the question of the composition of the Bureaux of the Committee and its subsidiary bodies, you would recollect that the General Assembly requested the Committee to reach agreement on all the officers of the Bureaux for the next two-year term starting from the year 2006. In this regard, all delegates should kindly note that the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States has nominated Ambassador Raimundo González of Chile as the next Chair of the Legal Subcommittee starting from the year 2006. I am looking forward to hearing from the other regional groups on their candidates for the respective offices for which they are responsible, in accordance with the agreement reached by the Committee last year, and as reflected in last year’s report of the Committee which was communicated to the General Assembly.

For your attention, consideration and necessary action, distinguished delegates, you should also recollect that in its resolution 58/89(?) (statement says 58/89 – Chairman says 58/59), the General Assembly requested this Committee, under the agenda item on other matters, to conduct constructive consultations among regional groups with a view to reaching a positive and final decision on the membership of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya at the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly. I hereby draw the attention of all delegations to the application for membership in COPUOS also by Thailand, as communicated to the members of the Committee in a note verbale dated 26 April 2004. I believe the Committee could examine the applications by both Libya and Thailand for membership in this Committee under other matters for decision by this Committee at this session.

Also as all of you are aware, and can recollect, this Committee agreed last year to invite Professor

Vladimir Kopal of the Czech Republic to present at this its forty-seventh session, a special lecture that will focus on a historical perspective and his personal reflection on the development of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of outer Space. I am sure that Professor Kopal is fully ready and I understand that will be addressing us tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Camacho, this is correct, tomorrow afternoon, Professor Kopal? Yes, tomorrow, Professor Kopal will be addressing us on this subject and Professor Kopal, we are waiting for your illuminating lecture tomorrow.

At its fifty-eighth session also requested this Committee, as I said earlier on, to consider ways to improve the participation of its Member States and entities with observer status in its work. The Committee is requested to develop specific recommendations on this issue by its next session in 2005. As your new Chairman, I sincerely believe that at this session we start the necessary exchange of views on this matter including our consideration of possible actions that we would recommend to the General Assembly in 2005. Specifically, in our consideration of this very subject, it is my own humble opinion that to be effective, responsive and responsible, this Committee, known as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, should be very clear to all its current and intending Member States and observers, on the responsibilities of membership in this unique permanent subsidiary body of the General Assembly. We will deliberate further on this subject during our consideration of our agenda item, Other Matters, at this very session.

Also at its fifty-eighth session, the General Assembly asked this Committee to expand the scope of international cooperation relating to the social, economic, ethical and human dimension in space science and technology applications. As a former United Nations Expert on Space Applications, and realizing the potential of space technology and the importance of international cooperation, I hereby invite this Committee to promote these goals and identify new areas for the application of space technologies for sustainable development globally. The Committee could, for example, identify initiatives to ensure the effective use of space capabilities to promote global health and education and to strengthen decision-making in the management of natural resources, particularly in water resources areas.

To this effect, distinguished delegates, I believe that one of the challenges before this Committee at this stage is to identify concrete steps that should be undertaken to move from experimental

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to operational phase in the application of space technologies globally. As a former member of this Committee’s Secretariat, I have listened to all of you and to your technical presentations which have been ably prepared and eloquently delivered in this room in the past 10 years. The majority of these presentations have offered appropriate solutions to pressing global problems. Through these technical presentations, Member States and several governmental and non-governmental organizations have demonstrated the many useful capabilities of space applications in disaster management, tele-medicine, tele-education, agriculture, communications and many other areas of importance to human development and security. I sincerely believe that we must not allow these invaluable solutions that we have proved in these rooms to be buried forever in our research archives, in our respective countries. We need to engage ourselves and those in need to find ways to make these practical and invaluable space applications opportunities more widely available.

In this connection, I would like to remind all of you that in Kobe in January next year, we will be talking and the Japanese Government will be hosting a meeting on disaster reduction. How can some of our solutions be considered and put into areas of practical application through Kobe? How can this Committee influence what comes out of Kobe deliberations?

Distinguished delegates and representatives, our Committee should fully engage itself on these and other issues I have presented to you this morning. Together, and through the hard work of this Committee and all of us, I am confident that we will meet these challenges.

I thank all of you for your attention.

Organization of work and establishment of working group

Distinguished delegates, we will now forward to the organization of our work and as soon as the President of the General Assembly comes in we will make room for him in our timetable to address us.

In this connection, I would now like to make a few additional comments about our work schedule and practical arrangements for this session.

As in the past, the indicative schedule of work annexed to the agenda just adopted by this Committee this morning will be followed, however, in a very flexible manner as much as possible and which can be adjusted as we proceed along.

With regard to the time of our meetings, we will meet every morning at 10.00 a.m. and adjourn for lunch at 1.00 p.m. We will reconvene at 3.00 p.m. and close for each day at 6.00 p.m., as has been the normal practice.

Distinguished delegates and representatives, please note that I would like very much your cooperation and support in keeping to this time schedule because we have a lot of things for deliberation. Try your best to be punctual, I beg you.

I would also like to remind delegates that all meetings of the Committee will be held in this room, Conference Room III.

Finally, distinguished delegates, I would like to draw the attention of the delegations and representatives to paragraph 29 of General Assembly resolution 58/89, concerning the Working Group established by the Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden to prepare its report to the General Assembly for its review and appraisal at its fifty-ninth session this year concerning the progress we have made here at this Committee on the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III, otherwise known as UNISPACE III + 5 Review. The Assembly also agreed that the Working Group should be reconvened at this, the forty-seventh session of this Committee, so that it can complete its work. May I, therefore, propose that we now reconvene the Working Group on UNISPACE III + 5 Review under the chairmanship of Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden?

It is so decided.

General exchange of views (agenda item 5)

While we are still waiting for the President of the General Assembly, we will now go to our agenda that has been adopted this morning and the first item on this agenda is the general exchange of views, item 5. I have a lot of speakers on the list that have signed up for this morning and whether we do not finish this morning, we will continue in the afternoon but I equally would like to implore all delegations that intend to make statements on this agenda item to alert the Secretariat as soon as possible.

The first speaker on my list is the distinguished Ambassador of Algeria and the Chairman of the Group of 77. Distinguished Ambassador, please.

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Ms. T. FEROUKHI (Algeria) (interpretation from French): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I have the pleasure of extending to you our heartfelt congratulations on being elected to the Chair of this session. We also congratulate members of the Bureau. We are certain that under your skilful leadership, this session is going to be dynamic and reinvigorated in a most successful way.

Allow me also to pay tribute to His Excellency, the Ambassador of Chile, who chaired this Committee with wisdom, passion and skill.

Today, many countries around the world are benefiting from the scientific and technical knowledge, as well as the new technologies elaborated by COPUOS.

In this regard, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I would like to nominate Libya and Thailand for membership in this Committee. The Group of 77 and China counts on the support of Member States in terms of allowing these countries to join our Committee as soon as possible.

We are at your disposal, Mr. Chairman, and I wish that everything that happens here in this regard is duly reflected in the report of the Committee. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I want to thank the distinguished Ambassador of Algeria and Chairman of the Group of 77 for her statement and for her compliments both to the Chair and other members of the Bureau.

The next speaker on my list is the distinguished Ambassador of Colombia, who will be speaking on behalf of GRULAC. The Ambassador of Colombia please.

Mr. C. ARÉVALO YEPES (Colombia) (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the Group of States of Latin America and the Caribbean, GRULAC, may I first congratulate you on your chairmanship of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of the United Nations. We are convinced that your experience, capacity and skills and leadership will help us to achieve success in our deliberations. And to this end, we offer you our full support.

GRULAC would also like to congratulate the other members of the Bureau and to the distinguished outgoing Chairman, Ambassador González. We would

also like to congratulate the outgoing members of the Bureau and our gratitude for their efforts in the context of the Committee. We would also like to thank the Secretariat of the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations for the timely and well prepared documentation for these sessions, as necessary for the proper discussion of these subjects.

Mr. Chairman, as this is the first time we are meeting after the unfortunate passing on of our colleagues and friends, the Ambassador of Guatemala, His Excellency Frederico Urruela Prado, and the Ambassador of Zimbabwe, Mr. Tirivafi John Kangai, we would like to indicate our deepest regrets for the untimely departure of these two outstanding colleagues and friends.

Mr. Chairman, GRULAC acknowledges the importance of this meeting for the Committee and the impact that it will have on the General Assembly in October of this year with regard to UNISPACE III headway. In this regard, we would like to thank the Chairman of the Working Group, Mr. Niklas Hedman, for his excellent work during the sessions of the two Subcommittees as well as the informal consultations which led to the drafting of the report on UNISPACE III + 5 to be presented to the General Assembly. And we would like to highlight, thus, the importance of all the recommendations reflected therein, especially those which were the product of different working groups efforts.

In this regard, it is important to undertake ongoing reflection on greater connections between COPUOS’ work with world agendas especially with regard to the Committee on Sustainable Development, the Plan of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the World Meteorological Organization’s agenda as well as with other organizations and agencies of the United Nations family and its specialized agencies.

With regard to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, we would like to support the Programme on Space Applications, the results of the Working Group on Space Law and the implementation of a global system for natural disaster management which is a subject of ongoing discussion in this session and it is of the highest priority for GRULAC.

Mr. Chairman, with regard to the mandates which are the result of the Plan of Action of the Fourth Space Conference of the Americas and the commitment with the Pro Tempore Secretariat, the Group would like to applaud the Seminar held on the Agenda of Aerospace Activities for Colombia: The

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Latin American Experience, which is to be held in the context of the International Aeronautics Fair from 24 to 27 June 2004 in Rionegro, Colombia. The main purpose is to move forward with measures to develop space with regard to other areas with a special focus on the socio-economic benefits of space technologies for the region and this will be an appropriate space to provide for international experiences to be shared and policies to be shared with countries of the region.

We would like to congratulate the Pro Tempore Secretariat of the Fourth Space Conference of the Americas and we urge the Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency to continue supporting this event which is a fulfilment of the Cartagena Declaration and the Plan of Action.

We would also like to highlight the Seminar on Space and Water: Towards a Sustainable Development, which took place in Santiago de Chile, in the context of the Air and Space International Fair, FIDAE, 2004, which responds to the commitments undertaken in the context of the Conference of the Americas in item 12 of the provisional agenda of that.

Mr. Chairman, with regard to the Legal Subcommittee, we would like to highlight the importance of the Working Group’s efforts in order to grapple with the issue of viability and appropriateness of the United Nations acting as an oversight authority for the Protocol on Mobile Equipment, Open to Signing in Cape Town since November 2001. We hope that the result of the efforts of the Working Group was suffice to clarify this aspect of this issue which GRULAC assigns a great deal of importance to.

Mr. Chairman, of particular importance in this Committee is the issue related to space and education which we highly(?) endorse, especially with regard to the work plan covering the period of 2004-2005. We hope the discussions on this subject will lead to the development of a plan of action which will include the presentation and implementation of small-scale projects making it possible to include in the area of education all elements related to space, technologies, applications and subjects especially for developing nations.

Likewise, the Group is of the view that we should strengthen cooperation with UNESCO and in this regard, we would like to congratulate the Office for Outer Space Affairs for their very dynamic approach to creating synergies with other agencies.

And thus, the Group is very pleased to note the holding of the Third Conference on Training in

Space Law which will be held in November 2004 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This Conference will be organized jointly by the Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil, with the support of the Brazilian Space Law Association.

Likewise, it is a priority issue for the Space Conference of the Americas to undertake a series of efforts that reflect one of the four priorities identified for the development of space, science, technology and applications in the area of education and training.

Mr. Chairman, with regard to the physical nature and technical attributes of the geostationary orbit, its uses and applications, including, amongst others, in the area of space communications, GRULAC would like to reiterate that this natural resource is limited and thus runs the risk of being saturated. And, thus, we are of the view that its exploitation should be rational and should include all countries regardless of their current technical capacity, thus providing them an opportunity to have access to the geostationary orbit in equitable conditions and this should particularly take into account the needs and interests of developing nations. It should also take into account the geographic position of specific countries and the agreement of the International Telecommunication Union.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, with regard to candidatures for the Bureau of the period 2006-2008, GRULAC would like to communicate and reiterate(?) in this plenary that we endorse the candidature of the Ambassador of Chile, Mr. Raimundo González, to chair the Legal Subcommittee. His experience and knowledge of this subject is known to all and we believe that under his leadership, the Legal Subcommittee will continue to make very significant contributions to the development of space law. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished Ambassador of Colombia for his statement and for his compliments to the Chair and the members of the Bureau and the Secretariat and we look forward to working with you Sir, both as a delegate and as a member of the Bureau.

Statement by President of the General Assembly

Distinguished delegates and representatives, I seek your indulgence in granting time to our distinguished guest to address us, and you know by now who that distinguished guest is and that is His Excellency Mr. Julian Robert Hunte, the President of the Fifty-Eighth Session of the General Assembly and

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the Honourable Minister for External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation of St. Lucia.

Sir, we are very happy to see you here and more importantly we need to thank and congratulate Austria for arranging your presence in the country at this moment and in giving us the opportunity to share the few moments you have in Austria with this Committee, given the fact that we are coming back to you later. I will not tell you what we are coming for. I will mention that when you have finished. It is my honour and privilege, Sir, to give you the floor to address this Committee.

Mr. J. R. HUNTE (President, General Assembly): Thank you Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, distinguished delegates and representatives. I welcome the opportunity to address this opening meeting of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the General Assembly’s only Committee charged exclusively with issues concerning the peaceful uses of outer space.

Let me thank you, Ambassador Raimundo González, outgoing Chair of the Committee and Dr. Adigun Ade Abiodun and the Committee, for inviting me to participate. Let me also congratulate you, Dr. Abiodun, on your election as Chairman of the Committee. I wish you every success in providing leadership for the Committee’s work over the next two years.

This Committee has a unique and vital responsibility for highlighting the role that space science and technology can play in assisting the United Nations in achieving its economic and social development goals. In this context, the Committee has critical and challenging work before it this session, as is evident from the detailed presentation made by Mr. Abiodun, following his election.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates and representatives, socio-economic development, we know, is an essential cornerstone of the United Nations Charter, which should underpin other ideals enshrined in the Charter, including the maintenance of international peace and security. In fact, my own conviction that the United Nations must actively pursue a progressive development agenda accounts for the inclusion of development high on the list of priorities I set for my Presidency of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly.

This Committee meets at a time when the General Assembly is seeking to bring its development agenda more sharply into focus, in response to the

views expressed by the generality of its membership. The General Assembly recently decided in its resolution 58/291, that a High-Level Plenary would be convened at the level of Heads of State and Government early in the Assembly’s 2005 session, the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. The High-Level Plenary would assess the progress made on the path to economic and social development agreed in the outcomes of more than a decade of United Nations summits and conferences, including the 2000 Millennium Declaration.

What is particularly significant about these summits and conferences, which commenced with the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is that they addressed a broad range of human endeavours. Financing for development, sustainable development, human rights, including the rights of women and children, and population and development, were just some of the myriad issues taken up in this context.

I have only recently set in motion open-ended consultations of the General Assembly that will provide organizational, procedural and other inputs for the Report of the Secretary-General on the High-Level Plenary. Careful planning would, I believe, ensure that the High-Level Plenary brings coherence and gives political impetus to cooperation and consensus for delivering on the commitments made in this range of United Nations meetings.

Concerning United Nations summits and conferences, I wish to make special mention of the 1999 Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, referred to as UNISPACE III. As you know, UNISPACE III, an essential element of the decade of development summits and conferences, adopted The Space Millennium: Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development. This Declaration, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly, contains the strategy that underpins United Nations initiatives to address global challenges through the use of space science and technology and their applications. The Vienna Declaration details specific actions that are to be taken in support of sustainable development.

Indeed, the three conferences convened by the United Nations to date on the peaceful uses of outer space form the basis for many initiatives now contributing to the better understanding of space applications. They also underpin initiatives that contribute to strengthening the capacity of developing countries in the utilization of space science and

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technology at the local level, for social and economic development.

Courses of action of the kind recommended in the Vienna Declaration of UNISPACE III require flexible mechanisms for follow-up. I note with particular interest the Committee’s achievements in this area. The Action Teams to implement recommendations agreed as high priority, for which Member States provide voluntary leadership, are an important way of proceeding in this area.

No doubt, the Committee’s report to the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly will contain key details of the accomplishments of the Action Teams, as well as the initiatives of Member States and the Office for Outer Space Affairs in implementing the courses of action called for in the Vienna Declaration. I am sure that the General Assembly looks forward to receiving that report.

The development of human resources is essential to national capacity-building, no matter what path countries chart for socio-economic development. I note that one of the most important achievements of the Committee has been the establishment of regional centres for space science and technology education, affiliated with the United Nations.

My own country, St. Lucia, falls within the scope of the work of the centres for Latin America and the Caribbean region. These centres, together with the centres for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, help develop and strengthen the skills and knowledge of university educators, and research and application scientists in the areas of space science and technology. As such, the centres make a contribution to sustainable development for the countries and for the regions.

The growing role that space-based solutions are playing in mitigating the catastrophic effects of natural disasters is also becoming increasingly evident. Meteorological satellites are used to provide early warning of severe weather, enabling vulnerable areas to be evacuated before the onset of a storm; remote sensing satellites, together with navigation and positioning satellites, can help rescue workers track survivors; and communication satellites can connect areas affected by disasters to the outside world, to enhance rescue efforts.

The value of space-based solutions is clear, when we consider that natural disasters constitute one of the most critical challenges to sustainable development. Hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides and other natural disasters, in a matter of minutes can wipe

out and reverse years of progressive development. The loss of lives in natural disasters is tragic and many can be rendered homeless, helpless and destitute. In fact, only last week in our region in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, over 1,000 lives were lost as a result of heavy rains which brought about severe flooding. It follows, therefore, that the reduction and mitigation of natural disasters is, as it should be, among the United Nations priorities, and a particular issue for the General Assembly.

Indeed, the issue of natural disasters is among the list of priorities I have set for the Presidency of the fifty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. I have made known my strong support for United Nations and international efforts in this area, including the World Conference on Disaster Reduction to be convened in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005.

The practical contribution the Committee is making through its promotion of the use of space technology for managing natural disasters has been noted. The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and Action Team on Disaster Management are, in my view, undertaking work of the nature required to enhance the capacity of countries, particularly developing countries and regions to deal with natural disasters through the use of space technology. The series of workshops, seminars and symposia conducted within the framework of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, should make a distinct contribution towards efforts for mitigating natural disasters.

I believe that the Committee has made a good decision in determining that its report on the UNISPACE III + 5 Review should consider how synergies between implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III and the implementation of the commitments made in the United Nations Millennium Declaration and outcome documents of the World Summits for Sustainable Development and on the Information Society might be reinforced and strengthened. Such an approach fosters cooperation and consensus in addressing development objectives and meeting internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

This Committee has also taken, I note, a pragmatic and sound approach to the implementation of the process for agreed courses of action in the area of space applications and technology. This approach might be instructive to other bodies of the General Assembly addressing the matter of integrated and coordinated implementation and follow-up of the

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outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields.

I am confident that such an approach will ensure that the Committee conducts its business in the most effective and efficient manner, including the work of this its forty-seventh session. In so doing, it advances an important goal of the Charter, to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.

I commend the Committee for its continuing commitment and initiatives to ensure that the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space benefit all countries and particularly the countries of the developing world.

Let me take one last minute of the Committee’s time to say a special thank you to the COPUOS Secretariat for their cooperation in preparing for our participation in this meeting. I would also especially wish to thank the Chief of Committee Services. I wish you all every success in your deliberations and thank you for giving me an invitation(?) (not clear).

The CHAIRMAN: Your Excellency, the President of the General Assembly, on behalf of this Committee, I thank you very much for your statement. And as I said earlier on before you started speaking, I said I wanted to make one or two comments once you have finished. And my comment is very simple. Listening to you now clearly shows that under your leadership at the General Assembly, at least there is some understanding of what this Committee is doing that touches virtually every aspect of human life and indeed you have identified a few of them. So when we come in October this year with our package, my hope and the hope of this Committee is that you and your successor will have prepared the ground for us, as they say in my culture, what type(?) of ground for us, so that delegates of the General Assembly are more prepared than ever before to have not only understanding but a greater role in how they can participate in using space technology for their own development back home. We need you Sir to prepare that ground for us when we come in October and we are grateful that you understand what we are doing very much. You have communicated that to us. And on behalf of the Committee once more, thank you for coming.

General exchange of views (agenda item 5)

Distinguished delegates, we can now resume our consideration of agenda item 5, general exchange

of views. In this connection, the next speaker on my list is the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Ambassador Cho Chang-Beom. Your Excellency, you have the floor.

Mr. C. CHANG-BEOM (Republic of Korea): Thank you Mr. Chairman. On behalf of my delegation, I would like to convey my warm congratulations to you on your election as Chairman of this session. I am confident that under your able leadership we will achieve constructive and far-reaching results. I assure you of my delegation’s full support and cooperation to this end. My delegation would also like to express its sincere appreciation to Mr. Sergio Camacho-Lara, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, OOSA, and his staff for their outstanding support and dedication to the Committee and its Subcommittees.

Mr. Chairman, recent admirable achievements by United States robotic Mars explorers Spirit and Opportunity, as well as the successful launch of the Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou last year, have brought both new hopes and challenges for the international community. My delegation would also like to commend the progress by the European Space Agency in its exploration of Mars. Those advancements and endeavours will certainly open up new horizons in human space exploration, to the mutual benefit of all humankind. In parallel with them, the significance of international cooperation to that end has been emphasized more than ever before.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development at the UNISPACE III. Since its main principles are the promotion of international cooperation in the area of outer space and its peaceful uses, my delegation believes that this session will mark a critical milestone for the future work before us.

Taking this opportunity, my delegation would like to express its sincere appreciation to the 12 Action Teams on the implementation of the recommendations of UNISPACE III for their efforts in reviewing such implementation and preparing the draft report for submission to the UNISPACE III + 5 Review Conference to be held during the upcoming fifty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly. We hope that this session will come up with useful guidelines of benefit to all of us and that they will continue to be implemented in a timely manner and in a spirit of international cooperation, bearing fully in mind the various spin-off benefits of the space technology as well as synergies of space technology and development.

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Mr. Chairman, I would like to briefly outline my country’s recent progress in outer space activities.

With respect to the recent progress in Korea’s remote sensing satellites, the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2, KOMPSAT-1, which was launched in 1999 for the purpose of collecting Earth imagery and ocean colour monitoring, has been operating well since its launch more than four years ago. A large amount of remotely sensed data has already been collected and distributed to many countries to support their own remote sensing activities.

To ensure the continuation of satellite Earth observation after KOMPSAT-1, the development of the project for KOMPSAT-2 that is expected to be launched in 2005, is under way. As its system integration process is being completed, more advanced and acute remote sensing and environmental monitoring of the Korean territories are expected. The twenty-fourth session of the Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, ACRS, and the International Symposium on Remote Sensing, ISRS, were held together in Busan, Korea, in November 2003, introducing a variety of new technologies and giving examples of their application.

Moreover, my country successfully launched the Science and Technology Satellite-1, STSAT-1, in September last year, which now routinely performs astronomical and space scientific observations. During the performance verification period, we have succeeded in getting the far-ultraviolet spectral image of the whole area of the Vela Supernova Remnants by using the Far-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, FIMS, loaded in the satellite, the first time this has ever seen done.

Mr. Chairman, last November, the Republic of Korea and the United Nations successfully hosted the Second United Nations Workshop on Space Law at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI. About 100 space law experts and government officials from all over the world participated in the Workshop, engaging in intensive discussions on key issues concerning space law. We believe that the Workshop has helped to clarify some controversial legal issues relating to the United Nations treaties on outer space and that it has also helped government and public officials, especially from the Asia-Pacific region, to increase awareness of the significance of the adherence to and implementation of such treaties.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation would like to appreciate the excellent works achieved by the

Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee to come up with their comprehensive reports submitted to this Committee.

The forty-first session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee discussed many important issues, in particular space debris, nuclear power sources, remote sensing and space-system-based tele-medicine. We hope this session will adequately discuss these issues to produce the desirable guidelines for their future works.

My delegation also welcomes the adoption of the draft resolution regarding the concept of the launching State at the forty-third session of the Legal Subcommittee. We believe that the concept could accommodate various views and positions due to its flexible and non-binding nature. We hope its application, in principle on a voluntary basis, will contribute to greater stability and certainty in activities relating to outer space by non-governmental as well as governmental entities.

With respect to the question of appropriateness of the United Nations as the Supervisory Authority under the preliminary draft Space Assets Protocol, my delegation supports the establishment of an open-ended ad hoc working group as proposed during the forty-third session of the Legal Subcommittee. We hope this will serve as a forum for an exchange of a variety of views and ideas, yielding fruitful results on this issue. In this regard, my delegation will actively participate in such discussions.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, my delegation duly notes the interest expressed by the Government of Thailand to become a member of the Committee. Considering its recent activities and contributions in the field of outer space, my delegation fully supports the candidature of Thailand for the membership of this Committee.

At the same time, we also welcome the statement of the Chairperson of the Group of 77 and China who expressed the support of the Group for the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, as well as Thailand in becoming new members of the Committee.

We earnestly hope that constructive consultations will enable us to reach consensus for a positive decision on the membership of these two countries at the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished Ambassador of the Republic of Korea for his statement

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and for his compliments to the Chair and the new Bureau.

I now invite Ms. Kadi, the representative of Jordan to address this Committee on behalf of the Asian Group. Jordan is the Chairman of the Asian Group.

Ms. R. KADI (Jordan): Thank you Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the Asia Group, let me congratulate you first, Mr. Chairman, on your election of this session. We believe that with your able guidance, our deliberations here today will yield constructive results. Moreover, I assure you of our full support and cooperation in advance.

On behalf of the Asia Group, I would also like to announce the Group’s official endorsement of the candidature of Thailand for membership of this Committee. We believe that Thailand’s valuable experience in this field can enhance as well as contribute positively to the overall work of the Committee. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished representative of Jordan and Chairman of the Asia Group for her statement and her compliments to the Chair and the new Bureau.

The next speaker on my list is the distinguished Ambassador of our host country, Ambassador Walther Lichem. You have the floor Sir.

Mr. W. LICHEM (Austria): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. As we are to finalize the important preparations for the upcoming UNISPACE III + 5 in the framework of this session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, my delegation is particularly pleased to see you, an outstanding and highly experienced colleague and friend, leading our efforts and being responsible for the outcome of our meeting. Let me, therefore, congratulate you and join those who have expressed our good feelings about your election and also of the other members of the Bureau.

I am confident that your well-known and long-proven skills and professional enthusiasm reaching back decades of COPUOS history will make this Committee discharge its functions in an efficient and enlightened way. We look forward to cooperating with you in our shared effort towards a successful conclusion and outcome of this session.

This, Mr. Chairman, is also a moment to express our profound gratitude to your predecessor,

Ambassador Raimundo González Aninat, whose great experience in multilateral diplomacy, together with a substantive creativity and, at times, his good sense of humour, has paved the way over the past years for the challenging tasks before us.

Mr. Chairman, allow me also to extend here, or to express my satisfaction, that the President of the General Assembly has come to the opening session of this Committee. We feel that this reminds us, and should remind us, of the multiple ways in which our agenda, the agenda of COPUOS, is related to the broader tasks dealt with in the principle organ of the United Nations, the General Assembly.

Let me also refer here to President Hunte as a personality with a profound and active interest in the challenges for reform faced by the United Nations, in particular as they relate to the General Assembly but also to the Security Council. In this context, it is maybe worthwhile to remember that it was COPUOS that has on and again moved ahead with institutional innovation. Let me just mention here a few examples.

The Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, held in Vienna in 1999, was the first global conference of the United Nations where industry and civil society were invited to participate in the deliberative process as full-fledged partners of governments.

A second example. In following-up the UNISPACE III, COPUOS adopted an innovative mechanism that established action teams. Nowhere else in the United Nations do you find action teams under voluntary leadership of Member States to implement the priority recommendations as identified by Member States. These actions undertook a comprehensive review of the status of implementation of the key recommendations of UNISPACE III and their inputs are guiding us in the work that we have to finalize over the next days.

And last year, COPUOS reached agreement on strengthening the arrangements for a predictable and more representative composition of the Bureaux of the Committee and its subsidiary bodies, while ensuring the necessary degree of continuity, institutional memory and inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary leadership.

And finally, I should like to highlight the continued, well, you could call it expertization, maybe a new word in the English language, of our meetings. However, we understand what it means. It means the active participation of qualified experts which has

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contributed in a very important way to the successful handling of the COPUOS agenda. And let me frank, the technical and scientific complexity of the issues we are dealing with quite sometimes reaches beyond the traditional “savoir faire” of us, of me, the diplomats. We cannot express often enough our appreciation for the valuable knowledge COPUOS receives from experts working on the various dimensions from the scientific and technical to the legal international law of the peaceful uses of outer space.

Mr. Chairman, there seems to be a renewed sense of urgency among the international community to make progress towards achieving by 2015 the objectives adopted in the Millennium Declaration. Ambassador González referred also to the need to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger which is there as part of our global reality, achieve the universal primary education, combat deadly diseases, etc. And the growing international know-how derived from space technology, and this is the message of COPUOS, can be instrumental in further developing national, regional, global capacities in areas as important as natural resources management and environmental sustainability. In this respect, the Office for Outer Space Affairs, in particular through implementing the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, has become, and we must recognize that, a key partner for the international community in its pursuit of the challenging goals to which we have committed ourselves in the Millennium Declaration. The Office’s work fits perfectly well into the wider context of the United Nations’ Global Agenda with regard to peace and security, with regard to economic and social development or to humanitarian affairs. In this sense also, our work in COPUOS is to be seen as being directly related to our global development efforts, if we understand, and I would like to remember her in this context the very good definition given by Mahbub Ul Haq, the father of the Human Development Report in the first edition of this report in 1990, development as a process of change towards an ever broader spectrum of choice. You could say space contributes to freedom, to the conquest of freedom as the essence of development.

Mr. Chairman, the Secretary-General of the United Nations last year appointed a High-Level Panel tasked with the preparation of a report to the General Assembly on Threats, Challenges and Change. The task of the Committee is to make proposals for shaping the global agenda on security policy, including the possible need or advisability of institutional innovation and reform in this field.

Now, discussing with panel members, and with the academic staff supporting the panel, we found out that the panel thought that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, that is it. But as they entered the agenda, they very soon found out that the hard security threats are directly related to what we are dealing with, the soft security threats. And, in fact, there is no hard security without addressing first the soft security agenda. This is our agenda. So space is also related to this new type of agenda, not in a hard way, but if you want, in a soft way.

In this respect, soft is water, let me just briefly refer here to an item we have strong feelings about, space and water. And let me just mention here how pleased we have been to observe and also to have been able to participate in first regional conferences taking place for the African region on space and water in Rabat, for the Latin American region, in Santiago de Chile, and forthcoming for the countries of the Danube Basin in Constantza, Romania, and then again later this year in Africa, in Pretoria, at the invitation of the South African Government, for the African region, with the effort to operationalize space applications in water resources management.

Mr. Chairman, not to be too long. Let me just mention here Austrian efforts in space applications, be it in education, in radionavigation, in space law and there will also be an Austrian contribution to United Nations/ESA/Austria/Switzerland Workshop on Remote Sensing in Kathmandu, remote sensing in the service of sustainable development in mountain areas, something we feel, and, of course, the Swiss know so many about, later this year. And let me also mention here space and society.

Space and society has been an agenda item which accompanied the deliberations of the Committee and the space community in a broader sense for many years. Let me just mention here the initiative of the 1980s to create in Vienna a World Institute for Space and Society as part of the United Nations University and we also gratefully remember initiatives on this topic by the delegation of the United States. In this context, we note the welcome convening of a conference on the impact of space and society by the International Academy of Astronautics in Budapest in March of next year.

Mr. Chairman, it seems that our agenda has a lot to do with “and”, space “and” society, space “and” water, space “and” Agenda 21. Maybe we should put up a new item that is called “And”. But this is maybe also our key concern to relate space and this is maybe should be a like motif(?) on how we address our

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agenda and how we project our agenda to those other agenda items with which it is related, some of which do non run in Vienna but in New York.

And in this context, let me just briefly mention the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, mentioned already by our Chairman, in Kobe, and I would consider it important that this Committee drafts a clear statement on what space can do. In fact, the Chairman has elaborated on that, on what space can do in the combat of reducing the impacts of disasters.

And similarly, let me just also remind us that our statement last year on space and the Information Society went unheard in Geneva. Now comes the second phase in Tunis, in November of next year, and I would like to suggest that space raises its voice, in one way or another, and articulates the backbone contribution of space technology that makes the information and communication technology possible that then creates and has an impact on the Information Society.

Mr. Chairman, in concluding, and I cannot conclude my statement without conveying our Austrian appreciation for the extraordinary efforts and achievements attained by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs under the outstanding leadership of its Director, Dr. Sergio Camacho. He and his colleagues, the staff of OOSA, is conveying to us this encouraging spirit of partnership. We have begun to understand that that global governance is partnership. Now everything good has to start at home. The spirit of partnership here starts in outer space. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much Ambassador Lichem of Austria for your very rich statement as well as for your words of encouragement to the Chair and the new Bureau. You have highlighted most of the issues before us and how we should go about addressing them within the global community and I hope, and I believe this Committee will listen to you.

The next speaker on my list is our former Chairman, the distinguished Ambassador of Chile, Ambassador Raimundo González. We would like to hear your voice one more time.

Mr. R. GONZÁLEZ (Chile: I hate the words “former Chairman”. (Continued in Spanish) Thank you Mr. Chairman. If you will allow me, and even if you do not, I would like to start with an unusual beginning to my statement. I recall when I was Chair of the Committee in the context of this topic on the agenda which is called exchange of views which, of

course, is supposed to stimulate interaction amongst various delegations, that was one of my failures(?) actually, amongst others, but in that context, I would like to start today by saying that I endorse, and those who want to endorse are not listening, but I fully endorse what was said by Ambassador Walther Lichem in his statement in terms of the concepts that he put forth and expressed so eloquently, both in terms of style and substance. My country, and I personally, and this is not because I am an Ambassador in Austria, I fully share the views that he put forth.

Mr. Chairman, today, for me, is, of course, one of what we could call a syndromom (syndrome?) of abstinence(?) but I also have dual pleasure because I have an opportunity to congratulate you a second time, and I say that most sincerely, Mr. Chairman, because I am speaking to a friend, to a person who has demonstrated great loyalty to the principles reflected in space activities and this is also reflected in his performance, not just rhetorical performance, but also in terms of efforts undertaken in order to make significant headway in our work. It is also a dual pleasure for me to congratulate the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, Dr. Camacho, who worked along side his team towards the same end and thus we are very pleased to see that we are so well represented. And, of course, I would like to extend my congratulations to the new members of the Bureau of this Committee. They are friends and have shown genuine interest in this subject and not just interest in obtaining a candidature.

Mr. Chairman, this session is of particular relevance for the international community because it has now been five years since UNISPACE III and thus in the context of the mandate of the General Assembly of the United Nations, we must now carry out an extensive and detailed assessment of the objectives proposed at the time of this World Conference.

My country fully believes in the areas in which developing nations can benefit from space applications and also in the fact that there are some important legal gaps to be addressed. And we further believe that with the great efforts of OOSA and the help of a number of Member States, it has been possible to take actions which are socially and economically relevant in terms of their impact in order to provide a context for action teams which were established by UNISPACE III to carry out their work. In this regard, we must highlight the excellent work undertaken in various spheres in the area of identifying and putting into practice the concrete recommendations put forth in order to solve the problems that prevent us from achieving human security and sustainable

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development through very powerful instruments provided by space technology.

Notwithstanding the achievements and the fact that space technology makes a great contribution and is a vital component of the new paradigm of the twenty-first century, notwithstanding, it is subject to this society based on information and public perception and decision-makers in various countries, seeing it as something rather fragile and their views almost bordering on arrogant ignorance. This is not the time to list the benefits for the developing world especially of this technology since this message has already been expressed insistently and in a persevering manner on many occasions, simply the decision that stems from this session should be to establish a structure and mechanism as appropriate in order to grapple with the dire straits in which mankind finds himself currently. Doing without space technology would be irresponsible in the greater sense of the word in this context.

We must observe, rather shockingly, that even in very many international large conferences and specialized agencies of the United Nations, people are not taking into account the relevance of space technology for the global community. And, moreover, if we take into account the new trends that are beginning to emerge, we see the greater practical and conceptual soundness in modern international law of this issue. This would include an example such as common global space, human security, sustainable development, all of which are problems, new threats, new challenges, which are transnational in nature and the solution of which requires a synoptic focus which is broad and which can be provided by and fully covered by satellite images. In this regard, climate change, the thinning of the ozone, migratory phenomena, drugs, transnational organized crime, as well as many other issues require the special tool provided by space applications in order to adopt consistent and appropriate policies to tackle these issues, in keeping with what we believe is of greatest relevance to speak to at this time in terms of the specific issues on the agenda in order to not engage into some sort of liturgical ritual which is semi-virtual in nature. We believe our task then is to the contrary, in light of the debates being held at this time and by virtue of the characteristics of this World Conference, we must use as a main reference point seek broad acceptance and dissemination on behalf of the international community of this subject. This is a topic which affects us every day in our daily lives. It is an issue which must be grasped fully by the global community and this includes all non-government players. They must grasp it in an intelligent and

creative manner, amongst other things, and reconcile the efforts of privatization and commercialization of space activities in a balanced manner based on the orientations provided by current legislation in this regard.

What we also think is extremely relevant at this time, for example, is a profound revision of the principles of remote sensing via satellite and satellite television direct broadcasting, taking into account the new challenges provided by the digital divide and access to Internet-based information.

We believe that it is important to focus our efforts on those aspects of the agenda which will have the greatest impact on developing nations, issues such as space and society, space and water, both of which are topics like space and education which are a variable of indisputable significance for future generations of mankind and which, in the case of water, for example, we are warned that that the shortage of this resource can determine the very future of mankind. If we look at the energy importance of water, we realize increasingly that there is a crisis brewing which we should be all concerned with.

In this area, specifically, I would like to mention that the Government of Chile recently organized an International Conference called Space and Water: Towards Sustainable Development and Human Security. The purpose of this Conference was specifically to call the world’s attention to the shortages of potable water which many people throughout the planet are suffering and which is one more ailment for populations who are abjectly poor. Information provided by satellites can, of course, contribute to establishing greater rational use and distribution of this vital and important resource for mankind.

Mr. Chairman, this Conference would lose part of its momentum if we were not able to generate greater acceptance on behalf of the international community and specialized agencies of the United Nations of the importance of space.

Given the situation at hand, my delegation would like to suggest that at the next General Assembly of the United Nations in the context of the plenary that an entire day be devoted to discussing the peaceful uses of outer space, the advantages that space technology can provide at a ministerial or a high-level meeting of countries and hopefully this could culminate in a declaration of principles which would be deeply and completely related to the Millennium Declaration and the objectives set forth in it, as

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formulated by the Secretary-General in the year 2000. In this way, we could establish a springboard for greater public and citizen knowledge and acceptance of the systematic use and consistent use of space technologies and the direct benefit of all peoples of the world.

In addition to this declaration, it would be possible to develop a call for all scientific academies around the world to include this on their agenda as a first stage towards participating in the Space Committee’s meetings and in its subsidiary bodies’ meeting. Thus, they could bring their knowledge and contributions to the practical formulation of action in how to proceed in the future.

As a step prior to achieving this goal, we would propose that we also conclude this session by creating a working group to the afore-mentioned end which would collect all the recommendations of the meeting and most particularly the objectives and achievements designed by the Action Teams in order to develop a document which would specifically highlight the objectives. Moreover, it would make it possible to comply with a mandate of issuing relevant resolutions for the General Assembly of the United Nations, some of which are of particular importance for Chile as we might include the Space Conference of the Americas, institutionalization of regional cooperation and structuring space agencies in order to strengthen this mechanism.

Generally speaking, we believe that this is of indisputable relevance. If we look at terrorism not just being a single event which dominates in a unilateral manner the agenda of the United Nations, we must go beyond that and seek technological formulas that would be available and more appropriate to actually tackle the root of terrorism and which produces such instability on our planet, one example of which would be social exclusion, exclusion which would be possible to remove if we use space-based technology and science. We must then, given the seriousness of today’s situation internationally and the doctrinal rigidness which is weakening our system and undermining multilateralism, we must reaffirm our determination at this time of having conferences which will lead to practical proposals and solutions. We must not remain at the level of final declarations which are basically the same as some superficial vision, a frivolous vision, which leads to nothing more than offers of cooperation.

And thus, the solemnity of the General Assembly session could at least provide for a universal dissemination and greater commitment to space

technologies and this would be even more true if it were able to provide a critical mass in terms of the benefits of space applications.

And finally, Mr. Chairman, along these lines, we would like to specifically endorse the membership of Libya and Thailand to be members of this Committee. In this manner, we adhere, without reservation, to the Declaration, put forth by the distinguished Ambassador of Algeria, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished Ambassador of Chile for his statement, as well as for his kind words of encouragement and congratulations to the Chair and the new Bureau.

The next speaker on my list is the representative of China.

Mr. W. SU (China) (interpretation from Chinese): Mr. Chairman, first of all, please allow me on behalf of the Chinese delegation to warmly congratulate you and to other newly elected members of the Bureau on your well-deserved election. I would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to the outgoing Bureau, especially Ambassador Raimundo González, for the efforts and the contributions they had made during their term of office in furthering the mandate of the Committee entrusted by the United Nations General Assembly. We are confident that under the able guidance of the new Bureau, with the joint efforts of representatives of members of the Committee, the Committee will register new achievements in promoting the peaceful uses of outer space and international cooperation thereof. The Chinese delegation will, as always, actively support and participate in the work of the Committee and make its contribution to the peaceful uses of outer space.

Mr. Chairman, as my delegation will give a more detailed briefing on China’s space activities under agenda item 6, Ways and Means of Maintaining Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, I would now like to briefly review the new developments in China’s space science and technology over the past year.

On 15 October 2003, China successfully launched into space its manned spacecraft, Shenzou-5, which successfully landed on Earth on 16 October. This marks a great step forward in China’s space activities. On board this spacecraft, two United Nations flags were carried as an expression of the good wishes of the Chinese people for using outer space for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of mankind. On 19 May this year, the flags were handed over by Mr.

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Yun Li Wai(?), the astronaut of the first Chinese manned space mission, to His Excellency, Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Over the past year, China had also successfully launched into the intended orbit, the BADO(?) Navigation Test(?) Satellite-III, the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite-II, CX-1 Scientific Experimental Small Satellites, and ZX-20 Communications Satellite.

In the area of space scientific research, China’s Double Star Programme, undertaking in cooperation with the European Space Agency, achieved the expected results of the first phase. In December 2003, China successfully launched TC-1, the first of the Double Star into the elliptical (eclictical?) orbit. The Double Star Programme is designed to promote human exploration of the geo-space environment and provide scientific data and bases for the safety and maintenance of operating environment of human activities in space.

The twelfth United Nations/ESA Workshop on Space Science was held in Beijing from 24 to 28 May this year. About 100 participants from 29 countries attended this Workshop and have conducted useful discussions and exchange of views on seven topics concerning the basic of space science.

Mr. Chairman, China attaches great importance to the national space legislation in order to implement more effectively the outer space treaties to which China is a party and to promote the orderly development of its space activities, China has promulgated two regulations, that is, the procedures for the registration of space objects and the provision of stipulations on the procedures for the licensing of civilian space launching projects.

The drafting of the rules of the People’s Republic of China concerning liability for damage caused by space objects to foreign countries has been completed and the draft is now subject to further review and comments.

Mr. Chairman, the Chinese Government has always held the view that the ultimate aim of exploration and utilization of outer space is to create a better environment of living and for the benefit of the whole mankind. We have witnessed the tremendous achievements made by the mankind in the exploration and utilization of outer space which have greatly promoted economic, scientific(?), technological and social development and progress in various countries. However, as space activities are more and more

increasing and space technology is developing continuously, the danger of militarization of outer space is also looming larger. The deployment of weapons and the weapons system in outer space will inevitably trigger off an arms race in outer space and turn outer space into a battle ground. This is a fundamental deviation from the principle of peaceful exploration and use of outer space and will cause serious consequences.

China always supports all efforts towards the peaceful uses of outer space and opposes militarization of space. We hope that the Committee will exert greater efforts at preventing weaponization of and arms race in outer space, including exploring ways and means of how to establish a comprehensive and effective legal mechanism in this respect.

Mr. Chairman, China always maintains that the States should further international cooperation in the field of outer space activities on the basis of peaceful use equality, mutual benefit, learning from each other and the common progress.

We believe that, parallel to the prevention of militarization of outer space, international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space should be strengthened so that more countries, particularly the developing countries, will benefit from space activities. This will, no doubt, contribute to maintaining the use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

Mr. Chairman, before concluding, I would like to reiterate our firm support to the membership of Thailand as a member of the COPUOS. We fully support Jordan’s statement on behalf of the Asian Group. At the same time, we would also like to express our full support to the statement made by Algeria on behalf of G77 and China with regard to the membership of Thailand and another country so that we will make contributions towards the attainment of the goals and objectives of the peaceful uses of outer space. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished representative of China for his statement and for his kind words to the Chair and the new Bureau.

According to the clocks in this room, we now have seven minutes to one ‘o’ clock. Accordingly, the last speaker this morning will be the distinguished representative of Italy before we adjourn for lunch.

I hereby give the floor to the distinguished representative of Italy.

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Ms. L. LORIA (Italy): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, first of al, please allow me to express my congratulations on the election of Mr. Abiodun from Nigeria, as Chairman of this Committee. Mr. Abiodun has had a long-lasting experience within the Office for Outer Space Affairs. We appreciated his engagement in the promotion and development of space activities, especially for the benefit of developing countries.

We also warmly congratulate the members of the new Bureau and we are confident in its abilities in guiding this session, wishing every success of the works of the Committee.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing Chairman, Ambassador González Aninat, for his constant commitment in watching(?) the work of this Committee. And of his Vice-Chairmanship of COPUOS(?) which did remarkable progress in reaffirming the United Nations role in enhancing the international cooperation in space activities for the benefit and in the interest of all States, especially developing countries.

We are also glad to thank Mr. Camacho, Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs, and the staff of the Office for the outstanding support to the work of this Committee and its Subcommittees.

Mr. Chairman, before reviewing the agenda items, allow me to briefly inform you on the main space activities in Italy, one year after a national Legislative Order established the new structure of the Italian Space Agency, in order to meet the new governmental guidelines on scientific and technological research.

Mr. Chairman, the COSMO-SkyMed Earth Observation Satellite Constellation is the Italian contribution to the natural disaster management system, which will monitor, control and manage natural disaster risks, such as forest fires, floods, landslides and oil spills. The programme is developing in collaboration with France and Argentina. The first satellite launch is foreseen in 2005.

The Italian Government has placed a great importance on the European Galileo Navigation System. It has financed the project for commercial use under civil control with a specific law.

The VEGA Small- Medium-Size Launcher is an essential building block of the European plans for access to space, complementing the Ariane-5 launch system. ESA is responsible for its entire development

and the qualification of the launch system. The programme is managed with an integrated team seconded by ASI and CNES.

Italy is continuing its activities for the completion and utilization of the International Space Station, in collaboration with the other Member States of ESA and NASA.

Italy is involved in the deep space exploration through its participation in the European Mars Express mission launched in June 2003 and the United States Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that will be launched by NASA in 2005. Italy is also one of the contributors to the European AURORA Programme for developing robotic and manned missions into the solar system.

Allow me also to recall the latest scientific European mission, ROSETTA, launched last March and which will meet the comet Churymov-Gerasimenko after an epic 10-year voyage through the solar system. The Italian scientific community has been involved in many orbiter and lander instruments. An Italian girl was the European winner for the naming of the lander PHILAE.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, you are probably aware that the CASSINI-Huygens mission, launched in October 1997, after an almost seven-year journey, is currently heading for Saturn. The mission was a cooperative effort with NASA, ESA and ASI. Tomorrow, 3 June, a press conference will take place at NASA Headquarters to present the mission and outline milestones.

Mr. Chairman, under the items in the agenda, I would like to mention just a few points of particular interest for Italy.

Item 6 on ways and means of maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes is a fundamental pillar of our work to promote regional and interregional cooperation.

Item 7 on the implementation of the recommendations of the UNISPACE III is the credibility key for sustainable development. It is our responsibility to promote space technology and space applications for the benefit of all humankind, taking into account the needs of developing countries.

We especially commend the Chairman of the Working Group, Mr. Niklas Hedman, for the work done during the last two years on the preparation of the report to be submitted to the General Assembly.

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The Italian delegation followed the works of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and of the Legal Subcommittee.

In particular, Italy actively supports the studies and activities on space debris through its chairmanship of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, IADC, and of the Working Group on Space Debris, established by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. In April, ASI also hosted the annual IADC meeting in Abano Terme in Italy.

During the last Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Italian industry participated in the fourth Industry Symposium, oriented to the small satellite applications in agriculture, health and human security.

The Italian delegation welcomed the adoption of the draft resolution on the application of the concept of the launching State during the last session of the Legal Subcommittee.

Italy also appreciated the ongoing process of assessment of the UNIDROIT draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment. We believe that the establishment of an open-ended ad hoc working group to consider, by electronic means, the issue of the appropriateness of the United Nations acting as the Supervisory Authority under the future Protocol will facilitate an agreement on the matters under consideration.

Mr. Chairman, concerning item 11, the Italian delegation would like to compliment Colombia for its proposal concerning the special theme on Space and Education, with the focus this year on the item Space and Society.

We welcome also the new relevant item 12 on Space and Water, with the conviction that the management of this natural resource is a key element of development in which space technology could contribute to promotion and education.

The Italian delegation will have the opportunity to make specific statements on these or other items in the agenda during the next days. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I wish to thank the distinguished representative of Italy, Ms. Loria, for her statement and her kind words to the Chair and the new Bureau.

Distinguished delegates and representatives, I will now adjourn this meeting of the Committee. But before doing so, I would like to also inform delegates of our schedule of work for this afternoon.

As I indicated earlier, we will reconvene here in this room at 3.00 p.m. prompt. At that time, we will continue with agenda item 5, General Exchange of Views. I would please request all delegates intending to speak to approach the Secretariat and register their names accordingly.

This afternoon, we will also or may begin the consideration of agenda item 6, Ways and Means of Maintaining Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, depending on what the schedule shows.

In addition, I have also received a request from the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs for the opportunity to address this Committee at this afternoon’s session.

And finally, at 6.30 p.m. this evening, Nigeria, represented here in Vienna today, by its Embassy and Permanent Mission, as well as by his delegation to the forty-seventh session of COPUOS, has asked me to invite all of you, all delegates to the forty-seventh session of COPUOS, to a reception this evening at 6.30 p.m., which will take place in the Mozart room in the VIC Restaurant, 6.30 p.m., and Nigeria is looking forward to receiving all of you.

Are there any questions or comments on our proposed schedule of work?

I see none.

I wish you a good lunch break.

The meeting closed at 1.03 p.m.