Nuclear Disarmament (Hansard, 28 February 2000)

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, the United Kingdom is working to ensure a successful outcome to the NPT review conference. We want to see discussion concentrate on substantive issues. However, the conference will also have to discuss outstanding procedural issues, such as establishing subsidiary bodies.

§ Lord Jenkins of Putney
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. Is it not the case that there is evidence from the Geneva conference that the discussion of procedural issues is used for the purpose of not arriving at any decision of substance and progress towards nuclear disarmament? Is it not necessary for my noble friends in the Government to take some exceptional steps to avoid that; for example, asking the Prime Minister personally to represent this country at the review conference so as to make it clear that we regard movement towards world nuclear disarmament as important? Are there not one or two procedural activities, such as putting one's own Motion on the table, which would avoid the general non-progress which took place in Geneva?

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, my noble friend raised a variety of points in his supplementary question. I have said that we want progress at the conference, but there is no doubt that some procedural issues—and I am sure that my noble friend knows them in greater detail than I—must be resolved. However, it is true that the UK is concerned about the prospects for the review conference. We are looking for the conference to result in a balanced review which takes account of the positive steps which both we and other nuclear weapon states have taken over the past five years and which also sets a realistic agenda for the next five years.
My noble friend raised the question of the Prime Minister going to the conference. The British delegation will be led by my right honourable friend the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Peter Hain. That is the normal representation at such review conferences. The one exception was in 1995 when the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the noble Lord, Lord Hurd, attended. That was a special conference and it has been the one exception. Therefore, the UK delegation will be led at the usual level.

§ Lord Archer of Sandwell
My Lords, does not my noble friend agree that the principal question is not whether we make progress at the review conference but whether we can run fast enough to stay in the same place? Is there not a profound mistrust among the non-nuclear powers that the nuclear powers are not taking their obligations under the treaty seriously? How do the Government propose to persuade them that we do not all share the philosophy of the American Senate?

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, perhaps my noble and learned friend Lord Archer of Sandwell will forgive me if I do not take up his last rather provocative sentence. The UK has done more than most to carry out the NPT agenda. We shall make that clear, but the non-nuclear weapon states recognise that. Since the end of the cold war we have reduced the number of our operationally available warheads by 50 per cent. Most recently, we did so in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review when we announced a reduction of one third in the previously planned number of warheads. The UK has maintained its remaining forces at reduced readiness.
325 I could go on, but I shall make one further point to demonstrate how far the United Kingdom has gone along that road. We have been completely transparent about our military stock of nuclear material, declaring that portion of it which is no longer needed for defence purposes and arranging to place that surplus material under EURATOM safeguards and to make it liable to inspection by the IAEA. We have an excellent record that the non-nuclear weapon states must recognise.

§ Lord Wallace of Saltaire
My Lords, we recognise that the Government have done a good deal to reduce the British nuclear deterrent. However, beyond the procedural issues in the conference, does the Minister not accept that the point made by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, about the commitment of many within the United States Senate and Administration to pursuing theatre missile defence is the largest single issue hanging over the future of the nuclear non-proliferation review conference? Can she assure us that the Government are making firm representations to the United States about the dangers which the pursuit of theatre missile defence would mean for the non-proliferation regime?

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, the United Kingdom has made very clear to its allies in the United States what it feels about this issue. We have stated from this Dispatch Box that we shall continue to make our position very clear.

§ The Earl of Northesk
My Lords, to what extent is the Minister concerned that the failure to agree a work programme at last year's summit conference on disarmament risks undermining the credibility of the conference on disarmament as a whole? What action do the Government intend to take at the conference's 2000 session to prevent a repeat of the deadlock, particularly given the words of the outgoing president of the conference, Ambassador Leslie Luck of Australia, that the conference could not credibly remain idle for another year?

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, that is exactly the problem which faces us all as we come up to the review conference in New York. The Government have been active in speaking to both nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states. The chair of the forthcoming conference is Algeria and we shall be in close contact with all parties concerned. It is of vital importance to us and to everyone that the conference is a success. We are doing everything politically and diplomatically to try to ensure that it will be.

§ Lord Harrison
My Lords, an article in last month's Spectator suggested that we might share our deterrent with France; indeed, that we might create a Eurobond. Will my noble friend the Minister explode that myth?

§ Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
My Lords, I am not sure that that is the correct verb to use on this topic! However, I am grateful to my noble friend for asking 326 that question because it gives me an opportunity to say that it is not true. We have warmly welcomed the growing co-operation on defence issues between the UK and France, but the UK nuclear forces remain operationally independent and under the Government's full control at all times. There are no plans to change that.