Yleem Poblete, Assistant State Secretary of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, attacked Moscow and Beijing by claiming they were attempting to militarise space. Speaking at talks in Geneva, Dr Poblete said the US couldn’t trust Russia while “they have touted the development and completion of a broad array of counterspace capabilities”. According to Newsweek, she also said “it is difficult to determine the truthfulness of China’s concern about the prevention of an arms race in space and their support for space arms control”.
US officials believe the two nations are attempting to get anti-satellite and laser weapons.
They fear this could create conflict outside of Earth and in space.
Plans to create a treaty between the three countries on the topic have twice been rejected by the US.
Speaking at the conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “For the second decade, we hear only excuses.
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“They say, the development of a treaty is a ‘long-term’ issue.
“It is premature to begin negotiations before there is a real threat of launching weapons into space, and it is generally impractical to establish a legally binding ban.”
And China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang refuted the claims.
He said: “The US is looking for an excuse to seek unilateral military superiority and to carry out the research and development of advanced weapons.
“The US’ false accusations against Chine are simply untenable and China will not accept it.”
The allegations come after Russia said it was planning to log off from the internet as part of its cyberspace war with the US.
Moscow wants to launch its own national intranet to protect Russian internet users from alleged US cyber attacks.
Donald Trump’s US government regards Russia as one of the world’s biggest hacking threats, and has mounted a cyber-security offensive.