HC Deb 03 July 1957 vol 572 cc1090-1

The delegations of Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States welcome the acceptance by the delegation of the U.S.S.R. of the requirement of inspection posts with appropriate scientific instruments, equipment, and facilities, to be set up for the purposes of control and detection of nuclear testing. This is an essential requirement which the four delegations had long proposed and upon which they had insisted. They note that the Soviet Union proposes that these inspection posts should be located within the territories of the U.S.S.R., United States, United Kingdom and Pacific Ocean areas.

Soviet acceptance of this principle now brings within the realm of possibility a temporary suspension of nuclear testing as part of an agreement for a first step in disarmament. This temporary cessation would be subject, of course, to precise agreement on its duration and timing, on the installation and location (with, of course, the consent of the countries concerned) of the necessary controls, including inspection posts, and on its relationship to other provisions of a first stage agreement. These provisions would include the first steps to halt the growth of armaments and to reverse the trend by initial reductions in armed forces and designated armaments, with the necessary initial measures of inspection, and the cessation of production of fissionable materials for weapons purposes under conditions to be agreed.

The four delegations propose that a group of experts under the direction of the five delegations meet on …(date) to proceed with the design of the inspection system to verify the suspension of testing and that the chairman of the five delegations proceed with the consideration of the necessary relationship of this provision for the temporary suspension of nuclear testing to the other provisions of the first stage disarmament agreement.