"It is high time for every country to foster a new security concept with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at its core, as the interdependence in security is deepening," Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Hu Xiaodi told the plenary of the 2002 session of the Conference on Disarmament.

"It requires building mutual trust through dialogue, settling disputes through negotiation and seeking security through mutually beneficial cooperation," he said while expounding China's stance on how to make and maintain security in the new century.

"Only by so doing, can we achieve individual security based on common security for all and create a peaceful and stable international security environment for the sustainable progress of arms control and disarmament," Hu added.

He pointed out that the global strategic framework has been undergoing complicated and profound evolution since the demise of the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, which constituted a cornerstone of international strategic balance and stability over the last 30 years.

He said that the paramount and fundamental objective of a new global strategic framework should be the common security for all countries.

It is imperative for such a new global strategic framework to be based on maintaining and observing the norms of international law.

The ambassador put forward a string of measures indispensable for the establishment of a stable global strategic framework.

The measures include nuclear disarmament and diminishing the role of nuclear weapons, prevention of the weaponization and of an arms race in outer space, and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The Chinese ambassador also expressed the views of the Chinese government on nuclear disarmament, nuclear-weapon-free zones, biologic weapons and other issues.

(People's Daily August 16, 2002)