Outer Space: Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Legal Subcommittee, 65th session, 1102nd meeting

Distinguished delegates, good morning. I now declare open the meeting of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. As I mentioned yesterday in the afternoon, this morning we will shortly suspend the plenary session. so that the Working Group on the Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties on Outer Space can hold its fourth meeting. Then we will resume the plenary to continue and conclude our consideration of agenda item 6 with a view to endorsing the Working Group's report. Time permitting, we will suspend the plenary to hold a second round of informal consultations on the draft report in this room. So I would now like to invite Ms. Franziska Knur, the Chair of the Working Group on the Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties on Outer Space, to the podium so that the Working Group can hold its meeting and I suspend this meeting.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Distinguished delegates, now let us turn to our work following this very long meeting of the working group which just met. I would like to give the floor to Ms. Francisca Knorr, the Chair of the Working Group on the Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties on Outer Space to present the report of the Working Group to the Subcommittee.

Chair, distinguished delegates, it's my pleasure to inform you about the work of the Working Group on the Status and Application of the Five United Nations treaties on Outer Space under agenda item six at the current session of this legal subcommittee. The working group focused on the exchange of views on the implementation of article 11 of the Outer Space Treaty in accordance with its work plan contained in A/79/20 annex two. And in this work plan, the working group continued the exchange of views on the implementation of information sharing on space activities as referred to in article 11 of the Outer Space Treaty continued preparing a template offer to states and intergovernmental organizations as a voluntary tool to submit information to the Secretary General on space activities for international distribution and discussed possible additional tools and practices to enhance the exchange of information in accordance with Article 11 of the Outer Space Treaty and in accordance with its work plan. To enhance the working group discussions, Two documents were prepared in advance of the subcommittee, namely a draft template for submission of information on space activities and the background paper on a potential repository of information submitted under Article 11 of the Outer Space Treaty prepared by the Secretariat at the request of the Working Group. The Working Group used the set of discussion questions proposed by the Chair of the Working Group in an information circular dated 25 March 2026 to structure its work. The discussion of the draft template concluded that there was general agreement on the draft template with a view to finalising it at the next session of the legal subcommittee. We also discussed additional tools and practices to strengthen the sharing of information on space activities, including options contained in the background paper by the Secretariat. and the working group noted that the development of an accessible searchable repository such as that outlined under option B in the above mentioned background paper would be desirable. As an outcome and to avoid duplication and identify gaps in information sharing, the working group requested the chair to engage with relevant subsidiary bodies and with the international mechanisms directly relevant for the information sharing on space activities. The working group also requested the Chair, with the support of the Secretariat, to further consult with permanent observers and other stakeholders on the margins of the 69th session of the Committee and to report to the working group on the outcomes. Furthermore, the Working Group, with a view to finalizing its current work plan, requested the Chair, with the support of the Secretariat, to prepare a substantive draft of the final report to be made available in all official languages of the United Nations for consideration and finalization by the Working Group at the next session. The report of the working group has just been adopted and is contained in document A/AC.105/C.2/Tre/2026/L.1. It is my pleasure to submit the report to the subcommittee for its action. And before giving the floor back to you, Chair, I would like to sincerely thank all the delegations, but especially the Secretariat for their hard work. under these extraordinary circumstances, we do impose an extraordinary schedule on them as well to prepare the documents that we need for conclusion of our works. So thank you very much for that as well.

I thank Ms. Knorr for having presented the report. I would now like to proceed with endorsing the report. which as was mentioned is contained in document A/AC.105/C.2/2026/Tre/L.1. Do I take it that the subcommittee endorses the report of the working group on the status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space? There do not appear to be any objections. It is so decided. I would also like to thank, on behalf of the Chair and the Secretariat, the Chair of the Working Group for all her efforts. With this, distinguished delegates, we have concluded our consideration of agenda item six. I would like to move to adjournment of the meeting to use the time available for informal consultations on the report in this room. I would like to inform you that the Secretariat has already published on the webpage of the subcommittee the 16 documents comprising the complete draft report of the subcommittee, including draft reports of the working groups, which are already available to all delegations. Before adjourning this meeting, I would like to inform you of the schedule of work for the rest of the morning and the afternoon. My intention is to suspend this session for one hour so that delegations have the opportunity to review the draft report which has been published on the webpage. We would return here to this room 30 in the morning to hold a second round of informal consultations like the ones that we had yesterday in the afternoon in order to discuss the report. I would like to recall for all delegations that these informal consultations are exclusively reserved for Member States, so I would like to invite observers to not join us at 11.30. Then we would suspend, then we would conclude our work seeing how far we got with the informal consultations and we would meet again at 3pm punctually where we would suspend the plenary session so that the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities can hold its fourth meeting. After that, we would resume the plenary session to continue with our consideration of agenda item 9 with a view to endorsing the Working Group's report. Then we will begin our consideration of agenda item 15 once again, which is the report to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. I would like to give the floor to the Secretariat to provide information on side events today.

Thank you, Mr. President. Distinguished delegates, during lunchtime today, there will be just one side event, event entitled Operationalizing Space Sustainability at the National Level through UNOSA's Global Space Law Project will be held from 2:00 to 2:55 PM in Conference Room 7 on the seventh floor, and also via virtual connection.

Thank you very much. With that information, we can conclude. Before concluding this session, I see that the United States has requested the floor.

Thank you, Chair. We note that the draft report was released yesterday, so we think that it would be appropriate for us to start going through it at this stage in the interest of using translator resources. wisely although if there are reasons that we would find it beneficial to have further informal consultations we would be interested in hearing what those are.

Thank you i would ask all delegations if they have had the opportunity already to review the draft report as a whole and if they would be able to hold consultations immediately, or is there any delegation that we would wish to have time to review the draft report which has been published? Brazil, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Good morning. With your indulgence, Chair, if you could repeat the plan you just proposed, because I was not sure if we would just break for a pause for us to analyze it or break for informal? Thank you.

For clarity purposes, I will explain this in English and I thank in advance the interpreters. The draft report has been published. All documents that comprise the draft report have already been published by the Secretariat. There are 16 documents available in the webpage. My intention was to close this meeting and to wait for an hour to give all delegations the chance to look at those documents, to download them, to revise them, and so that we could have a conversation, understanding that maybe not all delegations have had the chance already to look at these documents. However, if delegations have already seen the report and are ready to have a discussion on it, I'm also happy to conclude the formal meeting and immediately proceed to informal consultations so that we don't spend that extra hour giving more time for revision, and we can also do that. But I'm in the hands of member states to know whether if you're in conditions already to have informal discussions on that draft or whether delegations would prefer to have some more time to look at the draft before engaging in consultations. So this is what I'm asking. There is a suggestion by the US delegation to proceed immediately to consultations. So let me put the question in this way. Is there any delegation that would prefer to have more time to look at the report before engaging in informal consultations? The US delegation, please.

Thank you, Chair, and apologies for again speaking. But just to clarify, when you say to proceed immediately to informal consultations, what would that constitute? I think we had originally thought that we would, if our proposal was adopted, would move to reviewing the report. But is there something else that you are proposing there? It would be with using translations. Yeah, using translation services, I guess, would be the difference. But yes, appreciate the clarity there. Thank you.

Yes, my intention was to hold consultations in the same format that we did yesterday in the evening where we could have amongst member states a discussion on the report and we can go section by section of the report and the different documents that comprise it, but basically to stay in this room in the format of informal consultations that I would be facilitating. I don't know if that clarifies the question. Thank you. So can I take it that delegations are ready to move to those informal consultations? I don't see any delegation asking for the floor, so I'm assuming that's the case. In that scenario, I will Russian Federation, please.

Chairperson, I apologize, but for perfect clarity, If all segments of the report have already been published and states have acquainted themselves with them, perhaps it would make sense to begin adopting the report section by section rather than having informal discussions on the report. If the proposal is to have informals on the report, what's the point of that? What's the point of that exercise and how would it differ from actual adoption of the report. We are not clear on that. We are ready, as it stands, to begin with adoption of the report. Thank you.

I think that the Russian Federation for the question. The purpose of the exercise would be to find agreement on the report, because my understanding is that there is not necessarily an agreement for adoption. and therefore we will have to have a consultation before we can adopt it. So that would be the object of the exercise, rather than moving directly to adoption. But if in the consultations we realize that there's agreement on the different documents and sections, then we could move to a resuming of the formal meeting to adopt the report. So that is the intention behind having and holding informal consultations. I see nodding and a thumbs up. Thank you, Russian Federation. Any other delegation wishing to ask for the floor for any questions or clarifications? I don't see any delegation asking for the floor. So in this context, what I would do now is close this formal session and immediately move to informal consultations with all member states here to go through the documents that comprise the report. In that context, then I would also kindly ask observers to kindly leave the room so that we could have closed informal consultations with member states and I'll give five minutes for this to happen and then we can resume our discussions and the meeting is closed. Thank you.