The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and the Ministry of Defence will host the annual Combined Space Operations (CSpO) Principals’ Board meeting this week in Wellington.
The Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Clark and Deputy Secretary of Defence Policy and Planning, Michael Swain, will host delegates from CSpO member nations Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States for the talks on 7-8 December.
CSpO is a military space initiative to share information about space operations and activities and co-ordinate effort to ensure space remains a secure, stable, safe, peaceful and operationally sustainable domain for all.
New Zealand joined CSpO in July 2015, for the opportunity to increase knowledge of space operations, to bolster efforts to promote a rules-based international order in space, and to strengthen international relationships.
The meetings are held on a rotating basis, with New Zealand last hosting in October 2015. This will be the first high-level CSpO event that New Zealand will attend in person since February 2020.
Defence says its participation in CSpO reinforces New Zealand’s approach to space, focussed on the promotion and encouragement of the development of responsible behaviours in space.
For more on CSpO, including its guiding principles, objectives and lines of effort, please find a link to its ‘Vision 2031’ statement, which was publicly released in February.
