Jody Williams addresses Disarmament Conference in China

(Monday 01 April 2002 Washington DC)

Jody Williams, ICBL Ambassador and co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, addressed an international conference entitled "A Disarmament Agenda for the 21st Century" in Beijing 2-4 April 2002. The conference is co-sponsored by the United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs (DDA) and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tang Jiaxuan, the Foreign Minister of China, and Jayantha Dhanapala, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, will welcome the participants from 29 countries.

UN DDA noted "Participants will seek to clarify existing threats and to explore new ways to overcome obstacles in achieving global disarmament goals. They will specifically address urgent issues on the international disarmament agenda at the dawn of the twenty-first century: defence doctrines; nuclear disarmament; preventing an arms race in outer space; and conventional weapons -- including the “revolution in military affairs,” confidence-building measures, regional approaches; missile proliferation and missile defence."

China has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty and "continues to insist on a military requirement for antipersonnel mines at the present time, while acknowledging the desirability of a total prohibition at some point in the future", according to the Landmine Monitor Report 2001.