UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy warned on Friday that international arms control and disarmament has come to a crucial crossroads with a series of significant challenges.
Speaking at a plenary meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Fu Cong, head of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the world is encountering changes unseen in a century and the international security situation has become increasingly complicated and unsettling.
The United States, in its desperate attempt to gain security supremacy over others, continuously lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, and turns outer space and cyberspace into new battlegrounds, said Fu. "Such acts have severely undermined global strategic stability and increased the risk of a nuclear war."
"Withdrawalism" of the United States is running rampant, he said. As the United States scrapped the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the future of New START, the nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia, remains uncertain, the international security situation is plagued with unprecedented uncertainties, he said.
Breach of commitments and abuse of maximum pressure by the United States are constantly escalating the Iran nuclear issue, and pushing the security situation in the Middle East to a breaking point, he said.
The dual effects of technological development are increasingly prominent. The military application of new and advanced technologies is having a profound impact on global security, giving rise to ethical and legal concerns, he said.
Fu asked member states to firmly uphold multilateralism, maintain and further develop the multilateral arms control system.
All states are asked to be firmly committed to maintaining the authority and effectiveness of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and strengthen the implementation mechanism of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
He called for efforts to maintain global strategic stability, and carry forward nuclear disarmament step by step.
"China deeply regrets the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty. China firmly opposes U.S. attempts to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region," said Fu.
All nuclear-weapon states should pledge no first use of nuclear weapons, take measures to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies, and provide effective security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon states, he said.
Fu stressed the need to resolve proliferation issues through political and diplomatic means. "Given the complexities of the proliferation-related issues, they can only be properly resolved through dialogue and cooperation," he said.
Attempts to impose one's demands on others while ignoring others' legitimate concerns by means of unilateralism and maximum pressure will only make issues more complicated and intractable, which serves no state's interests, he said.
He asked for efforts to effectively advance governance in strategic new frontiers for the purpose of peaceful development.
China has always been firmly opposed to the weaponization and arms race in outer space. It is deeply concerned about the attempts by the United States to dominate outer space, he said.
China will continue to follow the path of peaceful development, strive for the sound development of the international arms control process, play a responsible role in global security governance, and make new contributions to maintaining international and regional peace and security and building a community with a shared future for humanity, said Fu.
