China urges continued efforts to push forward int'l nuclear disarmament

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday called on the international community to continue to push forward the nuclear disarmament process.

Cheng Jingye, director-general of arms control and disarmament department of the Chinese foreign ministry, made the appeal here at the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons for the establishment of a world free of nuclear weapons is not only the shared aspiration of the international community, but also the goal that China has advocated and worked for over the years, Cheng said.

"China believes that nuclear disarmament should be a fair and reasonable process of gradual reductions towards a downward balance," he said.

Cheng urged nuclear-weapon states to commit themselves unequivocally to complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, and negotiate and conclude an international legal instrument at an early date.

Pending achievement of the above-mentioned goal, nuclear-weapon states should reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies, he said. They should undertake unequivocally not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, and conclude an international legal instrument on not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapons-free zones.

As states with largest nuclear arsenals, the United States and Russia bear special and primary responsibilities, he said. They should continue to drastically cut their nuclear arsenals, which is indispensable for advancing the nuclear disarmament process and realizing the ultimate goal of complete and thorough nuclear disarmament.

China welcomes the agreement of the United States and Russia to start negotiations on a new bilateral nuclear disarmament treaty, and hopes that the two countries will further reduce their nuclear arsenals in a verifiable and irreversible manner, Cheng said.