Whiting’s comment comes in response to a question on how to avoid incidents in space amid the absence of space safety contacts between Moscow and Washington and whether a deconfliction channel like the one in Syria would be helpful.
“We would love to have a safety deconfliction channel like that,” Whiting said on the sidelines of the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs on Tuesday. “I think we all have to be responsible actors and we need to live up to our international obligations and act responsibly and safely on orbit.”
Whiting went on to say that the countries should live up to the Outer Space Treaty obligations and what it imposes on them, as both are signatories to that.
“ I think if we do those kinds of things, we can promote trust and that would, you know, help us ensure that we don't have space battles,” he added. “As I said this morning, we do not want a war to start in or extend into space.”
The United States currently has no contacts with Russia on matters related to space safety, but would welcome the opportunity to share such information, Whiting added.
“I think it would be very important for any spacefaring nation to be able to share safety information and to have a means of, of making sure there aren't misperceptions of certain activities,” Whiting said on the sidelines of the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Kremlin has previously repeatedly pointed out that Russia, together with other countries, particularly China, advocates the prevention of an arms race in space and its preservation for peaceful purposes.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has noted that that the US and its allies are taking steps to place weapons in space and use outer space for combat operations, not only for defensive purposes, they do not stop trying to position space as a new arena of rivalry and conflicts between states, with Russia and China as the main opponents.