States with the largest nuclear arsenals should negotiate a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or make a political statement in this regard, the Chinese foreign ministry's arms control department said.

Director general of the department, Sun Xiaobo, called on nuclear states to fulfil their "special and priority responsibilities" on nuclear disarmament according to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, which seeks to prevent nuclear war, official news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.

During the forum's weekly meeting in Geneva on Monday, Sun said the body should define a roadmap or timetable for an international legal instrument that would protect non-nuclear-weapon states from the threat of nuclear weapons.

"Nuclear-weapon states should negotiate and conclude a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or make a political statement in this regard," Sun said.

China and India are currently the only two nuclear powers to formally maintain a no first use policy. Russia and the United States have the world's biggest nuclear arsenals.

Sun also called for a universal, non-discriminatory, non-proliferation, export control order to address global security challenges, and promote more compliance in the field of biochemistry to maintain the authority of the arms control treaty system.

The U.N. disarmament forum should also respond to emerging scientific and technological challenges such as artificial intelligence, outer space and cyber, he said.

Sun described the international strategic security situation as facing new challenges, and that countries with the strongest military power have repeatedly "broken treaties" in order to "seek their own absolute superiority".

UN chief deplores 'paralysis and deadlock' at global disarmament body

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the world's top disarmament negotiating body on Monday it needed to make urgent reforms, accusing it of "paralysis" and failing to compel countries to cut weapons stockpiles.

Addressing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Guterres said its failure to fulfil its mandate had created an atmosphere of cynicism over the value of trying to reach multilateral disarmament deals.

There was no immediate reaction from the Conference which, according to its website, focuses on negotiating deals to end the nuclear arms race and stop countries building up weapons in space, on top of pursuing general disarmament.

"Something looks wrong if a disarmament conference leads to no meaningful disarmament, year after year," Guterres said.

"The paralysis and deadlock that have come to define it is something that is not acceptable. This Conference must be reformed urgently," he added.

He did not mention specific negotiating efforts or give further details on what kind of reforms were needed.

The Conference was established in 1979 and is overseen by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). It has 65 member states, including the United States, China and Russia.

It has negotiated several multilateral arms control agreements, including the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that came into force in 1997 to prohibit the use and stockpiling of chemical weapons.

"From the start, this Conference and its predecessors were supposed to be the antidote to the poison of division and diplomatic paralysis that blocked meaningful disarmament," Guterres said.

"For some time now, this Conference has not been able to function as intended. In fact, this Conference is failing in relation to its very objectives."