Vietnam supports the development of space science for peace purposes and is willing to make contribution to the field in the future.

Ambassador Le Luong Minh, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations made the statement at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first human flight to outer space held in New York on April 7.

Speaking at the session, Ambassador Minh hailed the first human flight to outer space by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, saying that it was a huge milestone in the history of mankind, a dream come true for many generations of leaders, scientists, writers and ordinary people.

The flight also opened up a new age of activities in space exploration, contributing immensely to man’s ability to improve the quality of life on earth and increasing international cooperation in space science to help solve many mysteries of the universe and bring down the frontiers of space in the interest of all, he added.

Minh said that the Vietnamese government set up a commission on space research in early 1979 to prepare for the Soviet-Vietnam joint human space flight. As a result, the first Vietnamese cosmonaut, hero-pilot Pham Tuan, successfully undertook his joint mission with Russian cosmonaut Gorbatko in 1980.

In 2006 the Government of Vietnam adopted the “Strategy on Research and Application of Space Technology by 2020”, which states that all activities of research and use of outer space must aim at peaceful purposes, contribute to the prevention of a possible arms race in outer space, and strengthen international cooperation in formulating a legal framework for the exploration and use of outer space toward peaceful ends, he said

The ambassador stressed that in order to ensure the exploration of outer space to serve the benefit of all mankind and for international cooperation in this field to be fruitful, the international community must also strengthen efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space.

He stated Vietnam also advocates the examination of further measures towards agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space in accordance with the spirit of General Assembly resolutions 65/68 and 65/97 adopted at its 65th Session and its previous resolutions./.