§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the arms control agreements and treaties to which Her Majesty's Government are a signatory.
§ Mr. RentonWe are a signatory to the following arms control agreements and treaties
The protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of bacteriological methods of warfare of 1925 (the Geneva protocol);418Wthe Antarctic Treaty of 1959;the treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water of 1963 (the partial test ban treaty);the treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies of 1967 (the outer space treaty);the additional protocols of the treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons in Latin America of 1967 (the treaty of Tlatelolco);the agreement concerning the establishment of a direct communication link between the residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in London and the Kremlin of 1967 (the Soviet Union-United Kingdom hotline agreement);the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons of 1968;the treaty on the prohibition of the emplacement of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction on the seabed and the ocean floor and in the subsoil thereof of 1971 (the seabed treaty);the convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and on their destruction of 1972 (the biological weapons convention);the convention on the prohibition of military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques of 1977 (the ENMOD convention);the (Soviet-United Kingdom) agreement on the prevention of accidental nuclear war of 1977;the convention on prohibition or restrictions on the use of certain conventional weapons which may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects of 1981 (the UN weaponry convention).
§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to seek to secure a new comprehensive test ban treaty.
§ Mr. RentonIn July we tabled a paper at the conference on disarmament in Geneva as a contribution to discussion of the outstanding problems of verification. In our view, solutions to these problems must be available before any comprehensive test ban treaty can be negotiated. The United Kingdom also joined western partners at the CD in proposing a mandate for an ad hoc committee at the CD to examine verification and other aspects of a comprehensive test ban with a view to negotiation. Unfortunately others have not so far agreed to this.