UN chief urges nuke powers to abide by no-first-use pledge
BEIJING: China on Monday continued its unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, extending the schedule of war games launched in retaliation to the visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees Taiwan, said on Monday it would continue drills in waters near Taiwan island, focusing on anti-submarine and air-to-ship strikes, state-run Global Times reported.
The PLA conducted joint drills involving all wings of its armed forces in six areas around the island from August 4 to 7.
The PLA's latest announcement notice did not specify the location of the exercises nor did it mention when they would end.
The PLA on Sunday proceeded with the plan and continued realistic combat-scenario joint exercises in the sea and air space around the island of Taiwan practicing island capturing drills and bomber deterrence flights in Taiwan Strait, a rehearsal for real operation, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.
TOKYO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged countries with nuclear weapons to stick to their no-first-use commitment of their atomic arsenals, warning that the nuclear arms race has returned amid growing international tension.
This is the moment to ask the nuclear-armed countries to commit to the principle of nonfirst-use and to commit to not use and not threaten the nonnuclear countries, Guterres said at a news conference in Tokyo, two days after he visited Hiroshima to commemorate victims of the August 6, 1945, atomic bombing.
I think that nobody, nobody can accept the idea that a new nuclear war would happen. This
The PLA Command in a late last night press release said its forces continued its joint combat training exercises as scheduled on Sunday in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan island.
The focus on Sunday was set on testing the capabilities of using joint fires to strike land targets and striking long-range air targets, an early Monday will be the destruction of the planet," Guterres said.
"What is clear is if nobody uses for the first time then there will be no nuclear war.
Fears of a third atomic bombing have been on the rise amid Russia's threats of a nuclear attack since its war on Ukraine began in February.
On Thursday, Moscow shelled the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, which holds Europe's largest nuclear plant. When asked about the attack, Guterres said, Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing.
He said he fully supports the International Atomic Energy Agency in their effort to stabilise the plant and have access to the facility to exercise its mandate.
Guterres said that after state-run Xinhua news agency report said.
The air force under the theatre command deployed multiple types of warplanes, including early warning aircraft, bombers, jamming aircraft, fighter-bombers and fighter jets, to conduct drills on such combat missions as joint reconnaissance, airspace control operation, strikes on decades of nuclear disarmament efforts, the world is now moving backwards", noting that the world already has 13,000 nuclear bombs and huge investment going into modernisation of atomic arsenals. So this is the time to say: Stop it.
Guterres said that the billions of dollars being used in the arms race should be spent on other pressing issues.
The billions that are being used in this arms race need to be used to fighting climate change, fighting poverty, addressing the needs of the international community," he said.
He said he will be also going to Mongolia and South Korea to discuss ways to address North Korea's nuclear development. ground targets, and air support and cover.
Supported by naval and air combat systems, the air strike forces, together with long-range multiple launch rocket systems and conventional missile troops, conducted drills of joint precision strikes on targets.
Multiple bomber formations flew across the Taiwan Strait from north to south and from south to north, while several fighter jets conducted joint drills with destroyers and frigates.
The operation has tested the tactics of systems warfare under information-based conditions, and honed and improved the capabilities to destroy crucial island targets with precision strikes, Zhang Zhi, an air force officer of the PLA Eastern Theatre Command, said according to the report.
During the four-day exercises, several batches of multiple types of warplanes attached to the PLA Eastern Theatre Command conducted systematic island attack drills, with the focus being honing the joint land attack and long-range air strike capabilities, the PLA Eastern Theatre Command said.