DUSHANBE, May 7, 2014, Asia-Plus — The world”s five nuclear powers have agreed to respect Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone. They announced they had agreed to never use their atomic arms against five Central Asian countries.
According the United Nations’ website, China, France, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom signed Additional Protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia with the five Central Asian countries at the UN headquarters in New York on May 6.
Chinese news agency Xinhua, in particular, notes that Chinese permanent envoy to the UN Liu Jieyi said in a statement on May 6 that China supports the efforts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia, which serves the purposes of strengthening the international non-proliferation regime, advancing the nuclear disarmament process, and promoting peace and security in the region and beyond.
According to the statement, China has made a solemn commitment of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time or under any circumstances, and promised that under no circumstances will it use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones.
The Central Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone commits its signatories — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — to refrain from developing, acquiring or possessing nuclear weapons. The treaty entered into force in 2009 without the world”s formally recognized nuclear-armed countries — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — agreeing to abide by its limits.
Under the protocol, the nuclear powers also affirm that they also would keep these weapons out of the covered zone. The five powers previously signed similar protocols promising to respect the strictures of other nuclear weapon-free zones that cover Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the South Pacific.
