§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what account he has taken of the Soviet Union's concern about the effect of the chemical and biological weapon capability of China on the achievement of a global chemical weapons ban treaty; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LuceI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him earlier.
At the Geneva conference on disarmament, the consistent objective of our proposals on banning chemical weapons has been to assure full compliance. If the Soviet Union were to agree to an effective verification regime to ensure the banning of chemical weapons, the threat of or use of such weapons by signatories to the proposed treaty would be permanently removed.