China urges countries to abandon nuclear umbrella

China on Monday called on some countries to abandon their policy of nuclear umbrella to advance the process of nuclear disarmament.

"It is the common aspiration of the international community to advance the process of nuclear disarmament in pursuit of the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, and nuclear states have made great efforts for that," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.

She was speaking following a 12-nation meeting of foreign ministers in Hiroshima on the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative.

Media reports said the Hiroshima meeting over the weekend adopted a declaration calling on all nuclear states to promote arms reduction negotiations through a multilateral framework.

"To push ahead with the process of nuclear disarmament, (we) must maintain international strategic balance and stability, and countries concerned should abandon nuclear umbrella, nuclear sharing and other relative policies," said the spokeswoman.

Nuclear umbrella refers to a guarantee by a nuclear weapons state to defend a non-nuclear ally.

Hua reiterated that China consistently stands for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. Also, China adheres to the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons as well as the policy that it will, unconditionally, not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones.

"(China) has never deployed any nuclear weapon anywhere overseas," she said, adding that the country has made positive contribution to the process of nuclear disarmament in the world.