ABM Treaty Cornerstone of Global Strategic Balance and Stability

A senior Chinese disarmament official said in Beijing on Thursday that the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty remains the cornerstone for global strategic balance and stability.

Sha Zukang, director-general of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament under China's Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that revisions of the treaty will undermine the global strategic balance and stability and seriously affect international peace and security.

Sha, an experienced Chinese diplomat in charge of arms control and disarmament, said that China opposes any revision of the ABM treaty.

"It is a clear and steadfast stand," he stressed.

He said that the treaty, which restricts development and deployment of any national ballistic missile defense system, safeguards the relative strategic balance and stability among the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers.

Though the US has said it wants to revise the ABM treaty to protect itself from "missile threats" of the so-called rogue states, Sha said the real reason for the US' insistence on the matter is that the country wants to develop its National Missile Defense system and seek an absolute military advantage over the rest of the world.

In his view, once the international strategic balance and stability is destroyed, the global strategic structure will definitely undergo major changes.

As a result, he said, the unilateral bent and military daring of American foreign policy will become more prominent, and other big powers will act in response, creating an even more unpredictable international situation. The US recognizes the treaty's status as the cornerstone for maintaining global strategic balance and stability and the prerequisite of nuclear reduction of the US and Russia, Sha pointed out.

In the joint statement following the US-Russia summit meeting days ago, Sha said, both sides reconfirmed the treaty has played an indispensable role in the process of nuclear disarmament and should be observed.

Any revision of the ABM treaty will seriously hinder nuclear disarmament, Sha said. The US' plan to develop the missile defense system will greatly improve the capability of the US strategic nuclear facilities in both offensive and defense. The National Missile Defense system will also serve as a kind of " amplifier" to the US offensive forces and nullify the progress made in US-Russia bilateral nuclear disarmament.

He pointed out that Russia has stated clearly that it will withdraw a series of arms control agreements if the US breaks the treaty.

Should that happen, he said, the success of US-Russia bilateral nuclear disarmament will be ruined, and the multilateral nuclear disarmament process will be hobbled as well.

The international non-proliferation efforts will be endangered by the revision of the treaty as non-nuclear countries regard the nuclear countries' commitment to nuclear disarmament as a pre-condition that they will not seek to develop and possess nuclear weapons, Sha continued.

He explained that if the nuclear disarmament process reaches a stalemate, it will be hard to maintain the current global nuclear non-proliferation system, and the basis of the international arms control and non-proliferation system will be shaken.

If the US succeeds in its attempt to revise the treaty, an arms race in space would be inevitable, Sha said, stressing that the US views the missile defense system as an important part of its plan to control space.

Under the US' plan, part of its missile defense system will be deployed in space and be targeted at space objects; and the other part of the system will be based in space for providing target and navigational information for ground weapons systems.

If the plan is carried out, space will become a new weapons base and battlefield, he said, stressing that other big powers will not sit and look on unconcerned.

He pointed out that the US, out of its selfishness, insists that the treaty be revised will not only jeopardize world security, but also seriously threaten its own best interests.

As far as revision of the treaty is concerned, he said that China hopes the US will, as the Chinese saying goes, "think well before taking any action," and consider the strong reaction that it will bring from the international community so as not to "life a rock only to drop it on its own toes."

On the US Theater Missile Defense system, Sha said that the system jointly initiated by the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region goes far beyond the legitimate defense needs of those countries.

He said that the system is not at all in line with the regional security and stability, and will possibly generate a regional arms race.

He emphasized that China is adamantly opposed to attempts by any country to include Taiwan in the Theater Missile Defense system in any form.

Inclusion of Taiwan into such a system seriously infringes on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and is a gross interference into China's internal affairs -- something that the Chinese people will never allow, he said.



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