Joint statement: China, Russia call on nuclear powers to abandon Cold War mentality

China and Russia urged nuclear-weapon states to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, according to a joint statement on global strategic stability released on Thursday.

The two sides emphasized the importance of maintaining a constructive relationship among major countries in addressing global strategic issues.

Noting that nuclear-weapon states bear special responsibilities for international security and global strategic stability, the statement said they should refrain from taking measures that trigger strategic risks. It stressed that concerns should be addressed through equal dialogue and consultations based on mutual respect, in order to enhance trust and avoid dangerous misjudgments.

The statement noted that not all nuclear-weapon states follow the above-mentioned position, adding that tensions among such states have escalated, even to the point of facing direct military conflicts. It said that problems and challenges in the strategic domain continue to emerge, and that the risk of nuclear conflict is rising.

According to the statement, the actions of certain nuclear-weapon states – including building or expanding permanent military bases in sensitive areas around other nuclear-weapon states, flexing military muscle to exert pressure, or carrying out hostile acts that threaten the core security interests of other countries – have become some of the most urgent strategic risks to be addressed.

Meanwhile, the forward deployment of military facilities and advanced offensive and defensive weapons continues to intensify, raising serious concerns.

The recently announced "Golden Dome" plan of the United States aims to build a global, multi-level and multi-domain missile defense system that is not subject to any constraints in resisting various missile threats, including those from "evenly matched" opponents, said the statement, adding that it also causes serious damage to strategic stability.

This plan completely and thoroughly negates the inseparable interrelationship between strategic offensive and strategic defensive arms, the core principle of maintaining global strategic stability. In addition, this plan also provides further support for the research and development of kinetic and non-kinetic means to strike missiles and their supporting facilities and achieve "left-of-launch."

The "Golden Dome" program openly proposed a significant increase in outer space combat capabilities, including the development and deployment of orbital interception systems, weaponizing outer space, and turning it into a large-scale site for armed confrontation, which worsens the situation, according to the document.

China and Russia oppose the attempts of individual countries to use outer space for armed confrontation and reject the implementation of security policies aimed at achieving military superiority. They also reject defining and using outer space as a "war-fighting domain."

The two countries condemned the use of commercial space systems to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states and to intervene in armed conflicts involving other countries.

The statement noted that a certain nuclear-weapon state, supported by its allies, seeks to undermine the reliability and effectiveness of the strategic deterrence of other nuclear-weapon states. This, it said, reveals an attempt to pursue overwhelming military superiority and ultimately achieve "absolute strategic security." Such behavior fundamentally violates the basic logic of maintaining strategic balance and runs counter to the principle of equal and indivisible security.

Any military confrontation among nuclear-weapon states should be resolutely avoided, the statement said, adding that political and diplomatic solutions to existing differences should be sought on the basis of mutual recognition of, and mutual respect for, each other's security interests and concerns.

Both sides pointed out in the statement that, through their trilateral security partnership, the United States, Britain and Australia are attempting to establish military facilities used by the two nuclear-weapon states to safeguard their nuclear forces within the territory of a signatory to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, thereby undermining regional strategic stability and provoking a regional arms race.