China calls for no-first-use treaty among nuclear powers

The Chinese foreign ministry’s arms control department urges nuclear-armed states to negotiate a treaty on refraining from first use of nuclear weapons or make a political commitment in this regard

The arms control department of the Chinese foreign ministry has proposed that states with the largest nuclear arsenals should engage in negotiations for a treaty on the no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or at least make a political declaration to this effect.

According to Sun Xiaobo, the department’s director general, nuclear-armed states bear a “special and priority responsibility” in the realm of nuclear disarmament, as outlined by the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. This conference aims to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war, as reported by the official news agency Xinhua on Wednesday.

Speaking during the forum’s weekly meeting in Geneva on Monday, Sun emphasized the need for the conference to establish a roadmap or timetable for creating an international legal framework that would shield non-nuclear-weapon states from the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

At present, China and India are the only two nuclear-armed nations that have formally adopted a policy of no-first-use.

Meanwhile, Russia and the United States possess the world’s largest nuclear stockpiles.

Additionally, Sun urged the establishment of a universal, non-discriminatory, non-proliferation export control mechanism to tackle global security challenges. He also emphasized the importance of enhanced compliance in biochemistry to uphold the integrity of arms control treaties.

Describing the current international strategic security landscape as encountering new hurdles, Sun expressed concern over the tendency of nations with formidable military capabilities to repeatedly “violate treaties” in their pursuit of absolute superiority.

Source: Newsroom

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