H.E. Mr Vid Novak, P.R. of the Republic of Kenya or as he would call himself - ''Ambassador

H. E. Mr Vid Novak, Permanent Representative of The Republic of Kenya to United Nations General Assembly. The most vocal of all African countries, trying to pursue and represent the goals of developing countries and an initiator behind the »Alliance for Common Interest of Mankind« (ACIM).

The Interceptor: Could you briefly describe the position of Kenya on the colonisation of outer space?

Mr Novak: We do not acknowledge any colonisation of outer space, because the term itself left a big impact on our history, therefore we prefer the expression inhabitation of the space. We believe this term is much more adequate to use, because we, the humanity, will not go to space and appropriate the space and make claims to the space – hopefully. We believe co-inhabitation of space in peace and prosperity is something countries should strive for.

The Interceptor: As you were one of the sponsors of the Draft Resolution 1.0 what was the idea behind it?

Mr Novak: Basically it was a sum of the already adopted resolutions, introducing many treaties – five of them to be exact. What we really wanted to do was further prevent any possible exploitation of space, that would lead to some countries or even worse, private companies to take all the profit for themselves. We don't own the space, the space belongs to everybody, even you and me. And this is something African countries are strongly standing for.

The Interceptor: The Draft Resolution 1.0 wasn't even introduced in the General Assembly, why do you think this was the case?

Mr Novak: We have tried to introduce the Draft Resolution 1.0 several times, it was even the first motion in the assembly for this Draft to be introduced, but maybe the time wasn't right. Maybe the countries needed some more debate on the issues we were trying to address more specifically. Even though we strongly stand behind our resolution, the countries somehow turned to the debate on Resolution 2.0 and a lot of the precious time we had was lost on the unproductive debate.

The Interceptor: What's the biggest significance of the Draft Resolution you have written and the already existing system?

Mr Novak: The difference may not be that big or obvious, the only difference we see is, that our Draft has tried to address the inhabitation of outer space, because current treaties do not see this as a possibility. We wanted to further address the issue of inhabitation of outer space, of people living outside Earth and that was our main goal - adaptation of the legislation to cope with the issues of inhabiting other planets than Earth.

The Interceptor: What was your contribution to the Draft and other Resolutions that were proposed?

Mr Novak: Clearly, amendments. We have proposed a large number of amendments and tried to cooperate with other countries. We tried to be productive; we tried to explain our amendments during the session and during unmoderated caucuses. We believe we did our best, even though other countries might not have taken our contribution as a substantial cooperation.

The Interceptor: Behind the scenes, we can only imagine all sorts of deals going on, not just multilateral, but also bilateral. Would you say there is a particular country that was very persuasive and vocal, approached you and tried to convince you in supporting them?

Mr Novak: None of the countries, except the ones in the alliance, approached us, and we were quite surprised and disturbed about this. None of the other sponsors tried to find a common point. However we are condemning the act of United Kingdom when they revoked all the humanitarian aid offered to Kenya just to have it their way, it is against the principles of the UN.

The Interceptor: What further actions are you willing to take in the future and what are your country's expectations for the future regarding this topic?

Mr Novak: Kenya already had a space programme, but was somehow cancelled and postponed to better days. We believe the brighter future is in front of us, so we are looking for strategic partnership, particularly for our University in Nairobi, where our country's leading well-skilled scientists are working on our space program. We have already started to negotiate with some other countries, but we wish to keep this private for now. We do look for future cooperation and finding partnerships. Regional cooperation might bring success, but because space explorations are a costly activity, we look upon our Northern allies for some support based on equitable as well as mutually acceptable international cooperation.

Want to know more about Vid? Here's something he told us about his personal life.

Vid, 24, is quite new to the studies of international relations, however the subject has always been one of his interests. Vid graduated in languages and speaks quite a few of them, therefore it is not strange that his passion is travelling. He believes that travelling is the only thing you can buy that can really make you richer. Beside adventures he likes to do sports, either gym or a hike of the nearby hill would do.What do Vid and the King of Netherlands have in common? They are both amazed by airplanes and have a secret job, so you shouldn't be surprised if you meet Vid up high in the sky.

#GASIM2017 #Kenya #SpaceInhabitation #SpaceisthePlace