Topic:
Country: Ethiopia
Delegate Name: Stella Yakima
Date: November 19, 2023
Committee: Disarmament and International Security Committee
Country: Ethiopia
Subject: Militarization of Outer Space
Outer space is currently a huge concern globally. Many countries want to claim parts of it and create militaries to protect the places they have “claimed”. This has been going on for many, many years now, dating back to the 1950s during the Cold War. Unlike many countries, Ethiopia is not particularly interested in claiming space or militarizing space. The nation of Ethiopia would prefer a calmer, more passive approach to this issue.
Ethiopia is very opposed to the militarization of outer space. They want to focus on working with China and making satellites to observe the weather and monitor infrastructure and crops. Ethiopian satellites are very important to China and Egypt as they are used to collect data on climate change. Ethiopia is very committed to protecting instead of using outer space to their advantage against other countries.
The satellites Ethiopia have been focusing on are incredibly necessary, they provide information about space and Earth. Only two satellites have been launched by Ethiopia, the first, ETRSS-1, in 2019. The second came a year later called ET-SMART-RSS, a nanosatellite designed only for providing information and observations on Earth to China and other African nations. ETRSS-1 is a multi-spectral remote sensing satellite launched into a sun synchronous orbit with the goal of providing data made from observing Earth, focusing on the areas of Africa and the Middle East.
Ethiopia believes it would be best to continue working with countries like China to study the data that has been collected by the satellites and even potentially build and launch new satellites.
Bibliography:
https://press.un.org/en/2022/gaspd762.doc.htm#:~:text=Acknowledging%20the%20General%20Assembly’s%20adoption,private%20and%20non%2Dgovernmental%20sectors.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ethiopia/#space
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/for-kids-and-students/what-is-a-satellite-grades-5-8/#:~:text=NASA%20satellites%20help%20scientists%20study,that%20Earth%20absorbs%20and%20emits.
https://addiszeybe.com/ethiopia-preparing-to-launch-its-third-satellite-into-space
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarisation_of_space
https://d197for5662m48.cloudfront.net/documents/publicationstatus/98803/preprint_pdf/a3ff03e07e753573fb7a5ee6e89e935f.pdf
