New Global Arms Control Framework Should Ban Autonomous Lethal Weapons - Berlin

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - World countries should develop a new international architecture of arms control which would prohibit the use of fully autonomous lethal weapons, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday.

"The international community, not only the United States and Russia, should develop a new arms control architecture. It should include not only nuclear weapons but also modern autonomous combat systems which kill uncontrolled by humans like killer robots. Germany will be insisting on them to be prohibited," Maas said in an interview with the dpa news agency as quoted by the Abendzeitung newspaper.

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The remark comes after in October 2018, the United States unilaterally announced its plans to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, accusing Moscow of alleged non-compliance with its obligations under the arms deal.

Moscow has rejected the accusations, reiterating its concerns over the US deploying the US Mk-41 launching systems in Europe.

In August, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems met in Geneva to discuss the challenges related to lethal autonomous weapons. Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called on the international community to ban fully autonomous weapons systems.