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Chinese Ambassador Warns of Grave Consequences of NMD
The development and deployment of the national missile defense system (NMD) by the United States will undermine global strategic balance and stability and threaten international peace and stability, a Chinese official said Thursday.
"Once NMD is deployed, the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty) will be dead in essence," said Chinese Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CD) Hu Xiaodi at the CD plenary.
The Russian Federation has stated in explicit terms that if the United States violates or pulls out of the ABM treaty, it will be forced to withdraw from a series of agreements and treaties in the field of arms control and disarmament.
"To seek missile defense capability protecting the whole territory is tantamount to seeking unilateral absolute security so as to gain absolute freedom in using or threatening to use force in international relations," Hu warned. "As a result, the blackmail of nuclear war will likely loom again and the international situation will become turbulent and unstable."
What's more, Hu said, NMD will seriously obstruct arms control and disarmament process and may lead to a new arms race. It will be detrimental to multilateral arms control and disarmament process.
The Chinese ambassador said that NMD would also disrupt international efforts of non-proliferation.
"Non-nuclear-weapon states regard nuclear disarmament by nuclear-weapon states as the prime prerequisite for them to honor their commitment to stay non-nuclear," he said. "As NMD will reverse the process of nuclear disarmament, it will inevitably shake non-proliferation to its foundation."
In this way, NMD will sow mistrust and discord among many countries, which will in turn affect adversely their cooperation on non-proliferation, Hu said. Furthermore, as missile defense program proceeds, there will be proliferation of sophisticated missile defense systems to other countries and regions, resulting in de facto proliferation of advanced missile technology.
China and Russia are strongly against NMD. In a joint statement in July, the leaders of the two countries stressed that the plan to establish NMD prohibited by the ABM treaty is a cause of profound concern. The statement has been distributed to the CD member states as an official document.
Pointing out that the implementation of the NMD plan would have the gravest adverse consequences for the security not only for China, Russia and other states, but also for that of the United States itself and for the global strategic stability, the Chinese ambassador urged the international community to continue to give serious attention to the perilous development and take necessary measures to halt it.
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