Defence to host Combined Space Operations meeting

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and the Ministry of Defence will host the annual Combined Space Operations (CSpO) Principals’ Board meeting on 7-8 December 2022, 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.

CSpO is a military space initiative. Its purpose is 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.

These 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’s 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(external link), which was publicly released in February this year.