Australia summoned China's ambassador to explain Beijing's reported test in space of a satellite-killing weapon and to express concern about the militarisation of space, officials said Friday.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said reports that China fired a missile to destroy an orbiting weather satellite last week marked a new departure in China's policy.
"Our concern about this is that to have a capacity to shoot down satellites in outer space is not consistent with the traditional Chinese position of opposition to the militarisation of outer space," Downer said.
"So we've asked the Chinese for an explanation as to what this may mean and what is behind this information that we've been given," he told reporters during a visit to New York.
"The Chinese at this stage are looking into it. The foreign ministry and the ambassador aren't aware of the issue and they're going to get back to us and provide us with some information about it," he said.
"We're concerned about the militarisation of outer space on the one hand and secondly we're concerned about the impact that debris from destroyed satellites could have on other satellites, which are very expensive pieces of equipment."
The United States and Japan have also condemned the test, which makes China the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to shoot down anything in space.
"The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," said US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
A successful test would mean China, which declined to comment on the allegations, could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.
Source: Agence France-Presse
