2023.12.01
On the afternoon of November 30, 2023, the German Arms Control Delegation, along with the Beijing Representative Office of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FEF), visited GVI to have an in-depth discussion on the international arms control and nonproliferation system, as well as China's role in the multilateral arms control mechanism and related cooperation. Mr. Sergio Grassi, FEF’s Chief Representative, and Mao Jing, Director of Public Affairs of GVI, presided over the meeting.
Among the participants in the meeting are:
Angela Kane, Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Senior Fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
Michael Staack, Head of Department of Political Science, Helmut Schmidt Federal University, Germany
Götz Neuneck, Research Fellow, Institute for Peace and Security Studies, University of Hamburg
Oliver Meier, Policy & Research Director at the European Leadership Network (ELN)
Fan Gaoyue, Former Research Fellow at the Department of World Military Studies, Academy of Military Sciences (AMS), China
Xu Weidi, Former Research Fellow, Institute of Strategic Studies, National Defense University, China
Liu Xiaobo, Director of Center for Maritime Studies, GVI
Liu Ping, Senior Research Fellow, GVI
The participants believe that international arms control and disarmament are still facing many pressing issues, such as the ineffectiveness and lack of binding force of some international treaties, the U.S. and Russia still retaining massive nuclear arsenals, a few military powers tenaciously holding on to the Cold War mentality and the approach of nuclear deterrence, and the use of certain conventional weapons involving cluster munitions and depleted uranium munitions. These dreads have not only exacerbated the degree of conflict but also triggered serious humanitarian crises. The global community must work together to see various treaties implemented forcefully and in particular the efforts of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are needed. At the same time, the development of outer space, cyberspace, artificial intelligence (AI), and other high technologies alike has also hurt existing global strategic stability. The international community should cooperate more widely to avoid the militarization of risky technologies.
On the issue of nuclear disarmament and nuclear proliferation, the attendees spoke of the AUKUS (a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as a typical case of increasing the risk of nuclear proliferation, which is a gross violation of the purposes and core obligations of Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Some experts there called on nuclear states to draw a clear bottom line and firmly support and promote the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.