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Any attempts to ‘privatize’ outer space unacceptable — Kremlin

On April 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in support of the exploitation of off-Earth resources, opposing the perception of space as a "global commons"

Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Any attempts at ‘privatizing" outer space are unacceptable, Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, commenting on US President Donald Trump’s executive order supporting commercial activities on the Moon.

However Peskov found it difficult to say whether this order could be seen as such a ‘privatization’ attempt. "Such decisions need a legal expertise. First, it is necessary to study it relying on legal approaches," he said.

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"I would refrain from doing it [giving a legal assessment of Trump’s order — TASS] right now. But any attempts at ‘privatizing’ outer space in these or those formats — right now I cannot say whether it can be viewed as an outer space ‘privatization’ attempt — would be unacceptable," Peskov commented.

On April 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in support of the exploitation of off-Earth resources. Under the order, the United States doesn’t consider outer space as a "global commons" and thus does not recognize the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, known as the Moon Treaty, that was adopted by a United Nations General Assembly resolution in December 1979.

Under the agreement, the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind and exploitation of such resources should be done exclusively for peaceful purposes and in the interests of all nations, regardless of the level of their economic or scientific development.

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