Chinese envoy blasts US obsession with absolute strategic advantages at UNGA

UNITED NATIONS - US obsession with "absolute strategic advantages" stalls the multilateral arms control process and erodes the international non-proliferation system, a Chinese envoy said Thursday at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

The United States is "obsessed with absolute strategic advantages," invests heavily every year in upgrading nuclear forces, promotes the Golden Dome anti-missile system, forward-deploys strategic offensive and defensive forces against other nuclear-armed countries, and continues to build nuclear alliances through "nuclear sharing and extended deterrence," said Sun Xiaobo, head of the Chinese delegation to the 81st session of the UNGA Disarmament and International Security Committee.

Sun, director-general of the Arms Control Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, warned at the Committee's general debate that the negative acts of the United States seriously undermined global and regional strategic stability, as well as the security interests of other states, and raised the risk of nuclear confrontation and conflicts.

The United States applies double standards on arms control and non-proliferation, adopts a utilitarian attitude toward the current multilateral arms control mechanism and treaty system, and has repeatedly withdrawn from treaties and organizations, he said.

"This is the fundamental cause for the stalemate of the multilateral arms control process and the erosion of the international non-proliferation system," Sun said.

China advocates that all states should practice true multilateralism, he noted.

Calling the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime and an essential pillar of the post-war international security architecture, Sun said the consensus on the prohibition of nuclear tests based on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty cannot be challenged.