"Firstly, a secured international environment and strategic stability is the foundation," Hu Xiaodi, ambassador on disarmament affairs of China, told a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament.

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 mutually complimentary, according to the Chinese ambassador.

"Only if nuclear-weapon states thoroughly destroy their nuclear weapons at an early date and that non-nuclear weapon states stick to their pledge not to acquire such weapons, while both groups of countries make steady efforts in nuclear disarmament and in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, can we achieve the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons," he said.

Observance of the basic principles in nuclear disarmament is the guarantee for the disarmament process, said the ambassador.

"Nuclear disarmament should be a just and reasonable process ofgradual reduction towards a downward balance," he said. "Countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals bear special responsibility for nuclear disarmament and should take the lead in drastically reducing their arsenals."

Hu also listed some practical intermediate measures of nuclear disarmament: the nuclear-weapon states to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies, and to honor their commitment not to target its nuclear weapons against any country; to withdraw and return home all the nuclear weapons deployed outside their own territories; to abandon the policy and practice of "nuclear umbrella" and "nuclear sharing"; not to develop easy-to-use low-yield nuclear weapons, and so on.

He said the implementation of the measures would be a supplement to and improvement of multilateral nuclear disarmament process and was conducive to increasing trust among countries.

Lastly, the establishment of an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament is the platform, said the ambassador.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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