Mr. Chairman,

It is conducive to promoting international and regional peace and stability to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and to achieve the universalization of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Based on this position, China supports the establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East and maintains that Israel joins the NPT as a non-nuclear-weapon state and places all its nuclear facilities under the IAEA comprehensive safeguards.

China welcomes and supports all parties concerned in their efforts aiming at promoting the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, and appreciates DG's convening of the Forum on Experience of Possible Relevance to the Creation of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in the Middle East.

Mr. Chairman,

China supports the convening, as scheduled, of the 2012 international conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. We appreciate the active role played by the facilitator Mr. Laajava to this end and hope all parties concerned join efforts for a productive conference.

China will work relentlessly together with the international community for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone and achieving peace and security in the Middle East.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.