China is playing an important role in promoting arms control, disarmament and the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, all of which are key goals for the United Nations, a senior official has said.

Preventing another world war has been a clear goal for the UN since it was founded 70 years ago, according to Wang Xiaoyu with the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs.

“As we know, wars are closely connected with armaments, so disarmament and arms control was put on the agenda at the UN General Assembly on Jan. 24, 1946,” he said.

Resolution 1 — to eliminate nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction — was adopted during that first session. In the same year, resolution 40, which included the reduction of armaments, was also passed.

Wang said the international community has already banned some weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons, and concluded the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the late 1960s.

As for small arms and light weapons, the subject was first addressed by a UN resolution in December 1991, and then expanded in 1996.

The latter mandated a panel of experts to research the small arms and light weapons being used in conflicts and to study ways to prevent them being illegally traded.

China has participated in UN disarmament affairs since the ’80s, playing an increasingly important role in disarmament and nonproliferation as its comprehensive strength and international political standing has grown, Mr. Wang said.

The UN has attached great importance to the country’s contribution, as have other member states, he said.

On Sept. 3, shortly before a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of V-J Day, President Xi Jinping said China would cut its military by 300,000 troops.

The reduction was the fourth to be announced since the country launched is reform and opening-up policy in the ’80s.

China joined the NPT in 1992, and Wang said that, out of the world’s five nuclear powers, it is the only one to adhere to the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstance, and has made an unequivocal commitment that it unconditionally will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against places without nuclear weapons.