VN supports effort to complete elimination of nuclear weapons
Apr. 11 (VNA) -- Viet Nam has always supported regional and international efforts to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, Counsellor of the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the United Nations, UN, Hoang Chi Trung said.
He was speaking at the 2001 Substantive Session of the UN Disarmament Commission in New York on Apr. 10.
The Vietnamese representative noted "First and foremost, on ways and means to promote nuclear disarmament, my delegation wishes to underline its strong support for the call made by the Heads of State and Government in the United Nations Millennium Declaration for the convening of an international conference to identify measures to eliminate weapons of mass destruction."
He said: "Viet Nam firmly believes that an international conference on weapons of mass destruction is timely and can be a good vehicle towards agreed measures to free our world from all nuclear weapons as well as other weapons of mass destruction".
"Viet Nam has always supported regional and international efforts to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. We fully share the view stated in the final document of the First Special Session on Disarmament that in the field of disarmament and arms control, priority must be given to nuclear disarmament," Trung told the session.
After welcoming the commitment made by States Party to the NPT at the last NPT Review Conference to the strengthening and preserving the integrity of the ABM Treaty, the Vietnamese diplomat urged the States Party to the Treaty strictly abide by its provisions.
He told the session that apart from being a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Viet Nam is currently holding the chairmanship of the ASEAN Standing Committee and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The country, therefore, supports the initiation of practical confidence-building measures as a way to facilitate the reduction of conventional arms and the prevention of conventional arms build-ups, thus making tangible contributions to the strengthening of peace and stability in the world and various regions.--VNA
