§ 29. Mr. Moynihanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the likelihood of progress in the Geneva negotiations on chemical weapons.
§ Mr. RentonWe warmly welcome the recent agreement by President Reagan and Secretary-General Gorbachev to accelerate efforts to conclude an effective and verifiable ban on chemical weapons. We hope this will provide an impetus to the negotiations at the conference on disarmament. The extent to which substantive progress will be possible will depend critically on whether the Soviet Union is now willing to negotiate seriously on the key verification issues. The United Kingdom will chair the chemical weapons committee in 1986 and will actively look for progress.