In the future, NATO intends to include space more closely in its military planning. The NATO Foreign Ministers will take this decision at their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and confirm the heads of state and government in London at the beginning of December. This would give space in NATO the same status as land, water, air and cyberspace.
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This would mean, for example, that an attack on a NATO partner in this area could subsequently trigger Article 5's collective assistance obligation.
The background to the decision is that space is becoming more and more important not only for civil communication or for the economy. Military operations are also increasingly dependent on the use of satellites, for example.
For some time now, NATO has been worried that countries such as Russia or China have long been developing weapons systems to disrupt satellites. For example, in 2007 China tested a special anti-satellite missile.
Above all, the US, but also France, are therefore pushing for increased military efforts in space; US President Donald Trump even spoke of an independent "US Space Force".
There are currently about 2000 active satellites in space, a number that grows almost daily. Nato itself does not currently maintain satellites, but uses those of its members. In 2016, the transatlantic alliance first recognized cyberspace as a so-called "operational domain".
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