Countries commit to peaceful exploration

China and Russia will submit a joint proposal in Geneva next month to ban the deployment of weapons in outer space, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday.

Jiang expressed China's desire for the peaceful exploration of space at a ministry press briefing.

"We support and actively promote negotiations at the Geneva conference for an international legal framework on preventing an arms race in outer space," Jiang said.

Valery Loshchinin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, said the draft treaty will be presented to the 65-member forum on Feb 12.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to address the Geneva forum, which constitutes the world's main disarmament negotiating body.

"China has never participated in and will never participate in an outer space arms race," Jiang said. China and Russia have presented several working papers on preventing an arms race in outer space over the past six years.

Su Hao, an expert on arms control at the China Foreign Affairs University, said: "China and Russia's proposal is beneficial for world peace."

A "certain" superpower's strategy to deploy weapon systems in outer space threatens the security of other countries including China and Russia, he said.

"What China and Russia are doing is trying to prevent that.

"We should maintain the peace and tranquillity of outer space, he said.

"It's an international consensus."

UN Security Council reform

Asked about China's stance on UN Security Council reform, Jiang said there was no change in China's attitude.

"We always support developing countries to play large roles in the UN, including the Security Council," Jiang said.

Developing countries, especially those from the African continent, should be better represented on the council, she said.

Source: China Daily