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CANADA AGAINST SPACE WEAPONS

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti, Irina Chumakova) - Dr. Marc Garneau, president of the Canadian Space Agency, warns against deployments of weaponry in the outer space.

Canada as well as Russia is against the militarization of the outer space; deployments of weaponry there is impossible, he told RIA Novosti.

According to the CSA president, Canada has signed relevant nonproliferation international treaties that it intends to stick to. Dr. Garneau expressed his readiness to cooperate with Russia in countering space military deployments.

At the same time, he said defense satellites were a legitimate thing to be used in the outer space. Describing the use of satellites for dual purposes as acceptable, he noted that such satellites could be used in military as well as civilian - telecommunication or surveying - missions.

Dr. Garneau also underscored the importance of international cooperation in space research, describing the outer space as something that belongs to the entire mankind. In space, there are no Russian, American, or Canadian sectors, he said. Various countries should cooperate in space for the sake of common interests, he argued.

According to the Canadian space chief, special legislation should be developed to regulate human activities in the outer space.

Dr. Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut to make it to the orbit, is currently in Moscow on a two-day's visit. Yesterday, he and Anatoly Perminov, chief of the Russian Space Agency, signed a memorandum on cooperation in peaceful research and use of the outer space.

On Thursday, the CSA president is to set off for Baikonur, Russian space center in Kazakhstan to oversee, together with Perminov, the launch of a Russian space vehicle Soyuz to the International Space Station. The Soyuz will carry a replacement crew.

Robert Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut trained at the Russian Zvyozdny Gorodok space training center, is the backup cosmonaut for one of the crew members.