Mr. President,
First of all, I
would like to, on behalf of the Chinese Delegation, express
our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to you for your
unremitting efforts to make this Review Conference a
fruitful one. Thanks to your wisdom and leadership, this
Conference has gained some achievements. The Chinese
delegation sincerely congratulates you. At the same time, I
also want to thank the Chairmen of all Main Committees and
two subsidiary bodies for their tireless work and
dedication.
Mr.
President,
This review conference as a
whole is successful. States parties conducted a
comprehensive and profound review on the implementation of
the Treaty, and on the decisions and the Middle East
resolution adopted in 1995. In spite of the different views
held by States parties, agreement has been achieved on many
issues; consensus has been reached on the need to preserve
the effectiveness and universality of the Treaty. It
reflects the common desire of States parties to safeguard
the Treaty and to promote the three principal objectives of
the Treaty.
Mr.
President,
Motivated by the sincere wish
to preserve the international nuclear non-proliferation
regime and ensure a positive outcome of the Conference, the
Chinese Delegation has actively participated in the work of
the Review Conference. As a result of the difficult
consultations that involved all parties, the Conference has
a final document now. We agreed to the adoption of the
document. At the same time, we are of the view that the
Conference also reflects differences far apart on some
important issues. The Final Document is flawed with certain
shortcomings.
First and for most, the
final document has failed to fully reflect the current
international situation, nor does it call for the removal of
fundamental obstacles to nuclear disarmament. Over the
recent years, military factors have increased in
international relations, military blocs have been expanded
and strengthened. Armed aggression and gross interference in
the internal affairs of other countries still take place.
The national missile defense project could sabotage the
global strategic stability, and put the ABM treaty under
great challenge, The danger of weaponization in outer space
is increasing. All these are the fundamental reasons that
have impeded nuclear disarmament process and undermined the
efforts preventing nuclear weapon
proliferation.
Second, the final
document has omitted or failed to place enough stress on
some necessary principles and measures in the field of
nuclear disarmament, such as:
----The
nuclear-weapon states with the biggest stockpiles should
undertake special responsibility for nuclear disarmament and
take the lead in reducing their nuclear arsenals and
delivery systems;
---- The
nuclear-weapon states should abandon the policy of nuclear
deterrence based on "first use of nuclear
weapons";
----All the
nuclear-weapon states should commit themselves
unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear
weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or
nuclear-weapon-free zones;
----States
with nuclear weapons deployed outside their borders should
withdraw all these weapons home;
----
Abolishment of "nuclear umbrella" and
"nuclear sharing" policies and
practices.
The Chinese Delegation
believes that above-mentioned principles and measures are
prerequisite to promoting nuclear disarmament and the
nuclear non-proliferation process, and should be achieved
through tireless efforts instead of being
neglected.
Mr.
President,
To put on the record, the
Chinese delegation wants to make our position clear
concerning some issues contained in the Final Document:
On the FMCT issue, our position is that
a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) should be conducive
to nuclear weapon non-proliferation and the promotion of
nuclear disarmament. For that reason, China supports
negotiating and concluding an FMCT. Meanwhile, facing the
clear and present danger of the "missile defense"
program and weaponization in outer space, we believe that
the prevention of an arms race in outer space is more urgent
than the negotiation of FMCT. Therefore, the Conference on
Disarmament in Geneva at least should deal with three major
issues, namely, PAROS, nuclear disarmament and FMCT in a
balanced and comprehensive way. Concerning the time frame of
the conclusion of FMCT, our delegation supports an early
conclusion of such a treaty in accordance with an agreed
program of work at the Conference on Disarmament. It should
be admitted that there are a lot of uncertainties in the
negotiation-related factors, which are hard to predict or
prejudge. To set the time frame artificially is not only
unreasonable but also impractical.
On
the Specific measures to reduce the danger of nuclear
warfare and the so-called intermediate measures, the Chinese
delegation believes that the most important priorities are:
unconditional no-first-use unconditional negative security
assurance to all non-nuclear weapon states, withdrawing home
of all nuclear weapons deployed outside the borders of the
nuclear weapon states and the foregoing of nuclear umbrella
and nuclear sharing. Any "confidence building
measures" divorced from these, will not be feasible.
Further more, no relevant measure can be implemented without
a necessary strategic stability
environment.
The Chinese Delegation also
believes that all countries have the right to peaceful use
of nuclear energy. When exporting nuclear materials to
States non-Parties, all States Parties to the NPT should
strictly abide by the provisions of the Treaty, in
particular article III, so as to ensure that the exported
items are under IAEA safeguard and only be used for peaceful
purpose.
Mr.
president,
As ever, China will
faithfully fulfil its obligations under the NPT. We will
continue to make all efforts for reaching the Treaty's goals
of nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation and
peaceful use of nuclear energy, in accordance with our
positions and principles as set out in our general
statements and working papers in this review
conference.
Mr.
President,
I would like to take this
opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all
delegations for their cooperation and effort, to his
excellency Dhanapala, Under Secretary General of the United
Nations, to Ms Hoppe, Secretary General of our conference,
and to all the people who have worked so hard for this
conference.
Thank you, Mr. President.