China forwarded proposals on Thursday in an attempt to break the
current stalemate on international nuclear disarmament and
nonproliferation.
"Firstly, a secured international environment and strategic
stability is the foundation," Hu Xiaodi, ambassador on disarmament
affairs, told a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament in
Geneva, Switzerland.
Hu stressed that efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space
and those on nuclear disarmament go hand in hand.
"In this perspective, it is of crucial importance for nuclear
disarmament that a missile defense system undermining strategic
stability should not be developed, and that no weapons should be
deployed in outer space," he said.
Secondly, efforts on nuclear disarmament and those to prevent
proliferation of nuclear weapons are complimentary, said Hu.
"Nuclear disarmament should be a just and reasonable process of
gradual reduction," he said.
"Countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals bear special
responsibility for nuclear disarmament and should take the lead in
drastically reducing them."
Hu also listed some practical intermediate measures: states with
nuclear weapons should reduce their role in national security
policies, and honor their commitment not to target them against any
country; to withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed outside their own
territories; to abandon the policy and practice of a "nuclear
umbrella" and "nuclear sharing"; and not to develop easy-to-use
low-yield nuclear weapons.
He said the implementation of such measures would be a
supplement to and improvement on the multilateral nuclear
disarmament process and was conducive to increasing trust among
countries.
Lastly, the establishment of an ad hoc committee on nuclear
disarmament is essential, Hu said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2005)