Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

GENEVA: Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a world without nuclear weapons at the UN on Wednesday and urged a multilateral system based on equality among nations large and small.
His speech at the United Nations in Geneva came at the end of a diplomatic tour that included a landmark address at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Some experts have seen Xi's Swiss tour as a bid to capture the mantle of global leadership at a time when the US is clouded by uncertainty with an unpredictable political novice about to take charge.
"Nuclear weapons should be completely prohibited and destroyed over time to make the world free of nuclear weapons," Xi said, according to an official translation.
China has been a nuclear state since 1964.
In the address, Xi also sought to make the case for a global governance system that strives for a level playing field among countries where interventionist tendencies are resisted.
"We should reject dominance by just one or several countries", Xi said, adding that "major powers should respect each other's core interests".
"Big countries should treat smaller countries as equals instead of acting as a hegemony, imposing their will on others," he said, speaking alongside the new UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.
"Sovereign equality is the most important rule.
Xi also praised UN organisations governed by the principle of one nation, one vote.
China has reacted harshly against attempts to influence what it considers its internal domestic affairs, from concerns over human rights issues in Tibet to a democracy push in Hong Kong.
Beijing has also used its veto on the UN Security Council to block intervention in some global hotspots, including in Syria.
In his disarmament call and plea for sovereign equality Xi offered China as a nation "committed to building a world of lasting peace". – AFP