At the same time, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation expressed hope that Washington would see "contradictions in its own position" on preventing an arms race in space against the background of Western accusations against Russia.
MOSCOW, December 1. /tass/. Russia hopes that cooperation between Moscow and Washington in the space industry will continue on a mutually beneficial basis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.
"I would like to express the hope that our practical cooperation [with the United States in the space industry], which has a deep history and has been developing effectively for many decades, that it will continue on a mutually beneficial and mutually respectful basis," he said.
At the same time, Ryabkov also expressed hope that Washington would see "contradictions in its own position" on preventing an arms race in space against the background of Western accusations against Russia after Moscow conducted tests, as a result of which an inactive Russian spacecraft was hit.
"The Americans are doing exactly the same thing, they have conducted similar tests for a long time and, plus, they are conducting rather alarming testing measures on the possible appearance of shock weapons in space, but at the same time they do not offer anything to limit this," the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia added.
According to him, the Americans are also not interested in limiting anti-satellite weapons, wanting to maintain their dominance in space. "If the Americans were interested in something more serious, besides putting their demagoguery on us unfounded, then they would say - here are our proposals on how we will limit anti-satellite weapons. They don't say that," Ryabkov summed up.