China

While Putin’s main aim of the visit to Xi was to convince Xi, “Look at what the West is doing to you in tariffs and they are trying to cut off your market – it is time to accelerate economic warfare and join in with us in this full-blown economic war with the West,” Hess’s impression is that President Xi is “certainly not ready to do so and hasn’t been.”

mid concerns that China’s Change’e 6 mission to the moon, launched on May 3, could be a part of a strategy to militarise the moon, Dr John Plumb, the Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy at the U.S Department of Defence, said, “I do not buy the idea of the militarisation of the moon.” He expressed his belief that space could instead serve as a significant platform for diplomacy with China. On the threat of nuclear weapons in space, Dr Plumb said the Defence Department (DOD) was taking the threat of Russia sending a nuclear head into space very seriously,” and added that no space-faring nation should entertain such a capability due to its catastrophic implications. Regarding the threat of cyber-attacks in space, Dr Plumb suggested that constellations of low-orbit satellites could provide a solution to ensuring satellite safety and said that the DOD is exploring other potential applications of low-orbit satellites