technical basis for a claim of sovereignty over the geostationary orbit." The United States "agreed with others that had come to that inescapable conclusion." Representative of the views of the equatorial States was the position of Brazil before COPUOS. Speaking of the geostationary orbit it was the Brazilian view that "the very existence of dissimilar conditions among States with regard to the exploitation of that limited resource means, in practice, that the occupation of the synchronous orbit takes place on a 'first come, first served1 basis. That practice could create situations where the annexation of a particular point of that orbit by a satellite does represent an annexation of space that contravenes the terms of the Treaty of 1967." Support for the position of the United States and the Soviet Union came from Poland on March 31, 1977. On the same date Colombia urged, since outer space had not been defined, that it was proper to assert that the geostationary orbit was within the sovereign area of a State. Hence, such a claim was not violative of the res communis principles of the Principles Treaty. Consequently, "the use, enjoyment, and occupation of that segment was subject to the prior authorization of the State concerned, and any attempt by third parties to place stationary satellites in it was therefore rejected. ..." U.N. Doc. A/AC/1O5/C.1/SR.199, p. 9, February 28, 1978. .. .. Ibid. U.N. Doc. A/AC.1O5/PV.176, p. 21, July 27, 1977. U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/C.2/SR.277, p. 2, April 5, 1977. Ibid., p. 4.
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