The Combined Space Operations Initiative: an Opportunity for European States?

Space is increasingly considered an operational domain relevant to states’ security, not only because space capabilities benefit multiple economic sectors, thus making space highly strategic, but because some countries have developed a wide range of counter-space technologies (NATO, 2024). Accordingly, national armies have begun urging the development of militarily-relevant space capabilities and the activation of international cooperation over such issue. In fact, the improvement of dual-use, potentially offensive, space technologies evolved as a much faster pace than the elaboration of international space law aiming at regulating the use of space. The Combined Space Operations Initiative (CSpO), involving US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, New Zealand, Italy, Japan and Norway, is one of the multilateral efforts to face the challenge of a militarised space domain, gathering an ever-increasing amount of spacefaring nations. However, this US-ed cooperation is not unproblematic, both because of some policy inconsistencies that limit the US capability of sharing information on space matters, and because of the inhibitory effect that reliance on the US for space security has on some parts of the European space industry and on EU strategic autonomy.

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EU Foreign Affairs Council Approves Ukraine Assistance Fund (UAF): €5 Billion for Military Aid

The European Peace Facility (EPF) has emerged as a critical financial instrument for delivering EU military assistance to Ukraine following the unprovoked Russian aggression against the country (Bilquin, 2023).Conceived as part of the 2016 EU Global Strategy, the EPF was established by the Council on 22 March 2021 through Council Decision CFSP 2021/509. It substitutes and expands upon former financial instruments and it is tailored to provide quick responses to security crises (Council of European Union, 2021), funding both lethal and non-lethal military equipment and supplies (Council of the European Union, 2024).

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Leaving the (Space) Door Open: ISS Missions as a Platform for International Cooperation

On 3 March, three American and one Russian astronauts took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the Falcon-9 rocket, owned by Elon Musk's company SpaceX, to reachthe International Space Station (ISS) (Le Monde, 2024). A US-Russian partnership, sustained by a private actor, might seem quite surprising amidst renewed geopolitical tension. However, neither the space cooperation between the US and Russia nor the active involvement of private companies in public-funded space operations is new in the space field. The growing impact of these trends on the space activities of other actors, such as the EU, will be significant (Jones, 2023).

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Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s Visit to France and Italy to Boost Cooperation with the Two

On 9 October 2023, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh embarked on a diplomatic visit to France and Italy that will last until the 12th of the same month. Singh is set to meet with his Italian and French counterparts, Guido Crisetto and Sebastien Lecornu, to bolster the Indian strategic defence partnership with these nations and explore opportunities for military industry cooperation.

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The Su-25 and the Russia-Belarus Military Cooperation

This Info Flash outlines the necessity to take a closer look at Russian-Belarusian military cooperation. While increased military cooperation between Russia and Belarus can be expected in an ongoing war, this depends on many more factors, and it is rather difficult to estimate its exact form. For the European Union, however, this cooperation poses a significant risk, and even though the involvement of the Belarusian army in the war seems unlikely, many factors at play can change this. The previously reached factors and many more factors are further discussed in this work, with the main research questions focusing on how close is the Belarus-Russian military cooperation and why it poses a threat to the European Union.

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