RUSSIA circulated a United Nations resolution on Wednesday, calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space “for all time” a week after it vetoed a United States-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space.

The Russian draft resolution goes further than the US-Japan proposal, not only calling for efforts to stop weapons from being deployed in outer space but for preventing “the threat or use of force in outer space,” also “for all time.”

It says this should include deploying weapons “from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.”

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the security council that the proposal did not go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.

He also reminded the council that the US and its allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons in outer space.

The vetoed resolution focused solely on weapons of mass destruction including nuclear arms, and made no mention of other weapons in space.

It would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that the US and Russia ratified.

Before the US-Japan resolution was put to a vote on April 24, Russia and China proposed an amendment that would have called on all countries “to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.”

Seven countries supported the amendment with seven against, and one abstention. It fell after failing to get the minimum nine Yes votes in the 15-member security council required for adoption.

US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia at the time of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking “dangerous nuclear rhetoric,” and refusing to engage “in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.”