India can be active player in developing international framework for responsible behaviour in space: EU envoy

EU Special Envoy for Space highlights India's role in developing international space norms, addressing concerns of debris and ASAT testing.

India can be a very active player in developing an international framework for responsible behaviour in space, said Marjolijn van Deelen, European Union Special Envoy for Space, while flagging debris from Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapon testing and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) that threaten satellites as major concerns.

As India and EU look to deepen strategic cooperation, they are also looking to hold a “space dialogue” as a first step for collaboration in the space sector.

“I think it would be important to jointly look at how we would want to regulate, in a way, these RPOs... to have international agreements on what is okay and what is not okay. And for that, we are setting up this framework for norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour and India and the EU could cooperate on setting out how we think they should be regulated in a way that does not pose a threat to us,” Ms. Deelen said, while speaking to The Hindu. “RPOs in themselves are not necessarily a problem. You don’t want to a solution that also kills all the programmes and the civilian benefits we can have from them.”

Rendezvous and proximity operations, or RPOs, refer to a spacecraft intentionally manoeuvring to dock or operating close to another space object.

Asked if India’s ASAT test was a matter of concern, the envoy said, “The creation of debris by ASAT is something that should concern all states and we’ve spoken about that and that’s why the EU has supported in the UN context a ban on destructive ASAT testing. The word ‘destructive’ is key here.”

To a follow-up question on whether there had been a conversation with regard to India’s ASAT programme, she replied there have not been any discussions yet and her conversations here will be “about how we cooperate”.

In March 2019, India announced the successful demonstration of ASAT capability, after destroying a live-orbiting satellite in the Low Earth Orbit of around 300 km with a new three-stage interceptor missile in a “hit to kill” mode.