China strongly committed to nuclear weapons free world

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-23 22:08

BEIJING -- China is strongly committed to a world without nuclear weapons, Gareth Evans, co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), told a press conference on the sidelines of the North-east Asia Regional Meeting of the ICNND here Saturday.

The regional meeting, which was held Friday and Saturday, allowed the ICNND to engage in intensive action with key nuclear experts providing insights on global and regional nuclear issues and challenges, including proliferation threats and the safe and secure management of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Evans said, "There is a need to energize a very high-level global political debate on what remains very important risks and threats for the future of this world."

According to Evans, threats come from the existing nuclear weapons, new countries acquiring such weapons in the future, nuclear weapons and material falling into the hands of terrorists and non-state actors who have the intention and capability of causing catastrophic damage. Moreover, the multiplication of new power plants around could also create problems.

Evans said, besides some large countries, there has to be very strong engagement by all the other significant players and countries in the international community.

In terms of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the issue involving the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) occupied a lot of time in the discussions.

This is a very important regional security issue relating to disarmament and non-proliferation, said Yoriko Kawaguchi, the other co-chair of the ICNND, adding that China has played an important role as an intermediator.

"The DPRK should abide by the United Nations' resolutions," she said.

Evans said that it is essential to keep the door open for dialogue and continue to explore the probability for resolving this thing peacefully.

Yoriko Kawaguchi echoed Evans by saying that there was a consensus on the importance of the object of the six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsular.

Evans stressed that it is important for all nuclear weapon states under the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to agree on a strong statement going into the NPT review conference about their commitment to a nuclear weapon-free world and the determination to take serious steps toward that goal.

A review conference has been held every five years since the 1968 NPT came into force in 1970. It has been ratified by nearly all the members of the United Nations. The exceptions are India, Israel, and Pakistan which neither signed nor ratified the accord and have developed nuclear weapons. The DPRK ratified it but withdrew in 2003.

The ICNND is an independent global initiative established in 2008, supported by the governments of Australia and Japan. It is designed to re-energize the debate about the need for a nuclear weapons-free world and all the interrelated issues of nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the future of civil nuclear energy in the run up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference.