Official calls for reducing strategic risks at UN meeting

The head of a Chinese delegation to a United Nations meeting has urged the international community to work together to maintain global strategic stability and reduce strategic risks.

Sun Xiaobo, head of the Chinese delegation and director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Arms Control, spoke on Thursday at the General Assembly of the UN Disarmament and International Security Committee, or the First Committee of the 78th UN General Assembly.

Sun pointed out that regarding international security, Cold War mentalities — such as zero-sum games and bloc confrontations — are making a comeback, leading to intensified geopolitical conflicts that affect global strategic balance and stability.

"Some countries are actively pursuing absolute military superiority, accelerating the development of advanced combat capabilities and constructing a 'technological iron curtain'. This has led human society to face multiple unprecedented security dilemmas," he said.

Sun emphasized that this year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping's proposal to "build a community with a shared future for mankind".

Sun added: "The world today is a community with a shared future in which everyone thrives or suffers together. People from all countries yearn for a world characterized by lasting peace and universal security."

The Global Security Initiative, which was also proposed by President Xi, "advocates a spirit of unity to adapt to the significantly altered international landscape", he said.

The initiative "promotes a win-win mindset to address complex and interwoven security challenges, exemplifies the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in the realm of security and offers a Chinese solution to achieve lasting world peace", he added.

Sun emphasized the importance of safeguarding the international nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation system, with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as the cornerstone, and advancing the treaty's three major goals in a balanced manner.

He called for better coordination between security and development and emphasized the need to strengthen governance of emerging technologies in areas such as cybersecurity, outer space and artificial intelligence.

Sun urged the international community to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of existing multilateral disarmament mechanisms.

In the face of new situations and challenges, Sun emphasized the universal implementation of the "no-first-use" nuclear weapons policy. He also called for the continuation of nuclear disarmament based on the principles of fairness, reasonableness, gradual reduction and balance, as well as the principles of maintaining global strategic stability and ensuring the security of all countries, adding that such principles should be promoted in a rational, pragmatic and step-by-step fashion.

Sun also elaborated on China's position regarding the peaceful use of science and technology, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the trilateral Australia-United Kingdom-United States cooperation on nuclear submarines, and Japan's release of nuclear-contaminated water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.