§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their attitude to the United Nations General Assembly statement that NATO cannot invoke the right of self-defence to justify using or threatening to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional armed attack.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces (Lord Trefgarne)The Government disagree with the statement in question which was made in a footnote to the United Nations Study on unilateral disarmament measures by four representatives of neutral and non-aligned countries submitted to the General Assembly on 31st August 1984. As we have repeatedly made clear, NATO is a defensive alliance and none of our weapons will ever be used except in response to attack.