Open Access Research Article

STRATEGIC AUTONOMY IN ORBIT: RECONCILING INDIA’S ARTEMIS ACCORDS COMMITMENT WITH ITS MOON AGREEMENT OBLIGATIONS

Author(s):
ABHIMAN MOHAPATRA AYUSHI CHOUHAN
Journal IJLRA
ISSN 2582-6433
Access Open Access
Volume 3
Issue 6
DOI https://www.doi-ds.org/doilink/09.2026-11743833/STRATEGIC AUTONOMY IN ORBIT: RECONCILING INDIA’S
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Abstract

Abstract
Very few States occupy the position India now holds in international space law: a signatory to the 1979 Moon Agreement, which treats lunar resources as belonging to humanity collectively, and, at the same time, the twenty-seventh country to join the 2020 Artemis Accords, a US-led framework that openly permits States to extract and commercially exploit space resources. This paper asks whether holding both commitments at once reflects a coherent legal position or simply postpones a contradiction that has not actually been resolved. Drawing on doctrinal and comparative methods, it traces the normative and textual gap between the Moon Agreement’s benefit-sharing vision and the Artemis Accords’ resource-utilisation approach, places India’s unratified signature within the framework of treaty law, and examines the Indian Space Policy 2023 as the domestic mechanism through which this international ambiguity plays out in practice. It concludes that India’s stance is better understood as a deliberate exercise of strategic autonomy than as legal inconsistency, though the lack of dedicated parliamentary legislation leaves that strategy vulnerable, and it calls for a codified national framework to address this shortfall.

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Author Details

Authors: ABHIMAN MOHAPATRA & AYUSHI CHOUHAN
Registration ID: 1013105 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13104 & IJLRA13105
Year: Sep-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 6
Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Page No.: 139-152

Article Information

STRATEGIC AUTONOMY IN ORBIT: RECONCILING INDIA’S ARTEMIS ACCORDS COMMITMENT WITH ITS MOON AGREEMENT OBLIGATIONS

Authors: ABHIMAN MOHAPATRA, AYUSHI CHOUHAN

  • Journal IJLRA
  • ISSN 2582-6433
  • Volume 3
  • Issue 6
Citation Download Paper Full Details Search on Google Search on Google Scholar

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International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis

  • AbbreviationIJLRA
  • ISSN2582-6433
  • AccessOpen Access
  • LicenseCC 4.0

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