Not surprisingly, both China and Russia rejected the claims and accusations made by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas G. DiNanno against both countries during remarks at the Conference On Disarmament on Feb. 6.
“China has noted that the US side continues to distort and smear China’s national defense force in its speech,” said Shen Jian, Ambassador of China for Disarmament Affairs. “China has always taken an extremely cautious and responsible approach to nuclear weapons,” he said. China has always adhered to the nuclear strategy of self-defence, adhered to the policy of “no first use of nuclear weapons,” and unconditionally pledged not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China has always maintained its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security and has no intention of engaging in an arms race with any country.”
In direct response to DiNanno, Shen charged that “The United States seeks absolute strategic advantages and spheres of influence, violates the principles of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, arbitrarily launches military strikes against sovereign countries, provokes camp confrontation, and becomes the initiator of the international and regional arms race.” It is actions of the U.S., Shen charged, that “are the biggest source of risk for international security.” these actions include the trillion dollar program to upgrade all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad, “continue to undermine the international arms control system, withdraw from the ABM Treaty, the INF Treaty and other relevant global strategic stability of the legal instruments; third, the deployment of nuclear weapons abroad, strengthen ‘extended deterrence’ and attempt to replicate ‘nuclear sharing’ in the Asia-Pacific region, and carry out nuclear submarine cooperation involving the transfer of weapons-grade nuclear weapons to non-nuclear-weapon States.”
“Instead of using China’s nuclear policy and nuclear forces to make articles about China’s nuclear policy and nuclear forces and rendering the so-called ‘China nuclear threat theory,’ the United States should introspect and effectively respond to the international community’s concerns about the negative trend of the United States in the nuclear field,” Shen said.
The Russian address to the Conference on Disarmament was delivered by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Ambassador Gennady Gatilov. The main part of Gatilov’s speech was a reiteration of previous official statements, including the Russian Foreign Ministry statement of Feb. 4. He explained, among other things, how it was that U.S. actions precipitated Russia’s suspension of the New START treaty in 2023.
The emergence of Russia’s “novel” weapons systems “must be viewed through the prism of the relationship between strategic offensive weapons and strategic defensive weapons, enshrined in the New START Treaty, which was deliberately ignored by the American side throughout the entire life circle of the Treaty,” Gatilov said. “As it is well known, Washington’s efforts to build a global and deeply destabilizing US missile defense system continued throughout the entire term of the New START Treaty and they currently are part of the ‘Golden Dome’ project, which poses an even more obvious threat to strategic stability.
“In these circumstances it is clear that the emergence of new Russian weapons systems outside the scope of the New START Treaty was a compensatory measure aimed at neutralizing the US’s actions in the field of missile defense that were contrary to the Treaty and, accordingly, at maintaining strategic balance.”
