Chinese ambassador to Britain urges observance of INF treaty

LONDON -- Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming on Sunday urged the United States and Russia to strive to address their differences properly through constructive dialogue and observe the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

In an article published on the Financial Times website, Liu called the United States' decision to pull out of the nuclear arms treaty "wrong-headed."

According to the ambassador, the INF treaty, a missile pact signed by Washington and Moscow at the end of 1987 to curb arms race, has played a positive role in maintaining relative peace in the world.

Both the United States and Russia, the two countries which hold about 92 percent of the world's 14,500 nuclear warheads, recently announced their withdrawal from the treaty.

"The United States even cited 'China's intermediate-range missiles' as one of its excuses, along with alleged Russian cheating," the senior diplomat said. "Such an effort to blame China is groundless and unacceptable."

China is committed to peaceful development and exercises the utmost restraint in developing strategic forces, said Liu, stressing that all of its land-based short- and intermediate-range missiles are deployed within its borders.

"China, unlike the United States, is publicly committed to no-first-use of nuclear weapons," he said, urging that rather than being abandoned, the INF treaty should be strengthened.

"The likely redevelopment and redeployment of missiles would undermine strategic stability across the world, trigger regional tension and hamper the global cause of arms control and disarmament," the ambassador said.