Outer Space: Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Legal Subcommittee, 65th session, 1103rd meeting

Good afternoon, dear delegates. I now declare open the meeting of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. As I mentioned in the morning session, this afternoon, in just a few moments, we will suspend the plenary session so that the working group on legal aspects of space resource activities can hold its fourth meeting. We will then resume the plenary to continue with our consideration of agenda item nine with a view to endorsing the working group's report. And then we will once again suspend the plenary to hold informal consultations on the draft report and the chair's summary as I indicated in this morning's informal consultations. We're working with the secretariat to finalise both the draft report, draft revised report as was proposed, as well as the proposed chair's summary, so as to be able to make it available to all delegations, so that we can also show it when we have the informal consultations. Time permitting, We will begin our consideration of agenda item 15, which is on the report to the committee. If there are no further comments on this schedule for the afternoon, I would invite to the podium Mr. Stephen Freeland, chair of the working group on legal aspects of space resource activities so that the group can hold its fourth meeting. And with that, I suspend the session.

Thank you.

Colleagues, welcome back. I would now like to continue and conclude our consideration of agenda item nine with a view to endorsing the working group's report. I would now like to give the floor to Mr. Stephen Freeland, the chair of the working group on legal aspects of space resource activities to present the report of the working group to the subcommittee. Mr. Friedland, you have the floor.

Chair, distinguished delegates, it is my pleasure to inform you that the working group on agenda item nine general exchange of views on potential legal models for activities in the exploration, exploitation and utilisation of space resources has completed its work at the present session of the Legal Subcommittee. It is my pleasure to inform you about the progress of the working group. The working group met under the five-year work plan as contained in document A/AC.105/1260 annex II appendix and held four formal and four informal meetings during this session of the legal subcommittee to discuss relevant information and exchange views on the draft set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities. It also held two informal meetings prior to this session of the Legal Subcommittee on 13 and 14 April and will hold one additional informal meeting after this session of the subcommittee on Friday 24 April. The working group agreed to apply a step-by-step approach to the discussions on the draft set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities, covering the preamble, the section on definitions, and the principles in a sequential order. The working group agreed that based on the discussions held at this session, The Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Working Group would prepare an updated set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities in accordance with its work plan that would be published on the dedicated webpage of the Working Group next week. The Working Group also agreed that the Chair and Vice-Chair would prepare a consolidated version of the draft set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities that would be translated in all UN official languages and disseminated in a timely manner to States members of the Committee by early September 2026. The Working Group also agreed on holding up to six intersessional meetings before the 66th session of the Legal Subcommittee, with the first of these scheduled for 24 September 2026, to advance its discussions on the draft set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities towards achieving consensus by 2027. Chair, distinguished delegates, with this overview, it is my pleasure to submit to the subcommittee for its endorsement the report of the working group on legal aspects of space resource activities, contained in documents A/AC.105/C.2/2026/SRA/L.1 as well as ADD.1, which have been adopted by the working group as amended. Finally, I take this opportunity to express my thanks to you, Chair, and also my sincere appreciation to all delegations for their support, cooperation, constructive inputs and suggestions made as regard the draft set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities. Our work represented, I believe, the finest traditions of the Vienna spirit. I also sincerely thank the Secretariat for its tireless, professional and facilitative work in support of the Chair and Vice-Chair, as well as in support of the Working Group. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, and thank you, distinguished delegates.

I thank Mr. Freeland for his statement. more importantly for his work, the work as the Chair and also on the part of the Vice-Chair of this Working Group. And with that, we can proceed to endorse the report of the Working Group on legal aspects of space resource activities, which as was mentioned is contained in document A/AC.105/C.2/2026. as amended with the agreement of the group. Do I take it then that the subcommittee endorses the report of the working group on legal aspects as has been presented? I see no objections. It is so decided. Once again, thank you for your work, for your efforts. And with that, we have concluded our consideration of agenda item nine. With regard to the informal consultations on the draft report and the Chair's summary, I would like to share with all delegations that we are in the process of finalising these documents in order to be able to make them available and so that we can circulate them to all delegations. We have already prepared the drafts of these documents but we need to undertake a final revision on the part of the Chair and the Secretariat before we can upload them to the webpage and make them available. So, I would ask for your patience and collaboration in order to be able to suspend this meeting for 45 minutes in order to be able to finalise this work and share it with you. I would suggest that we meet here again at 4:15 in the afternoon. I would ask delegations to be here in order to be able to hold informal consultations on these draft documents. Once again, thank you for your patience and the session is suspended.

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Dear colleagues, I know they clicked on the wrong, I'm still just waiting for the printed version of the draft report and of the chair summary that have now been uploaded to the webpage. So if you look at the webpage, they are there, but I want to have them printed with me before we have consultation. So if you just bear for a few minutes, I'm just waiting for those impressions, those printouts. And I remind colleagues that this is a closed round of informal consultations for member states. So again, if there are any observers, I would kindly ask them to leave the room so that we can have informal consultations with member states. Thank you.