§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will explain Her Majesty's Government's attitude to the 1985 Rarotonga treaty which aims to restrict the testing, deployment or use of nuclear weapons in the south Pacific; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorAs my hon. Friend the then Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton) told my hon. Friend the Member for York (Mr. Gregory) on 20 March, we give careful consideration to the protocols to the south Pacific nuclear-free zone treaty (the treaty of Rarotonga). Having taken full account of our security interests in the region and more widely, the views of our allies and the regional states themselves, the texts of the treaty and protocols and the announced policy of the Soviet Union, we have concluded that it would not serve our national interest to become party to the protocols to the treaty.
473WAt the same time, we remain ready as a matter of policy to respect the intentions of the regional states as set out in protocol I. In other words, we have no intention of testing, manufacturing or basing nuclear weapons on Pitcairn, the only territory under our jurisdiction within the area covered by the treaty.
Further, with respect to proctocol II, we reaffirm the British undertaking given in 1978 to non-nuclear weapon states which are parties to the NPT or equivalent commitments, not to use nuclear weapons against such states except in the case of an attack upon the United Kingdom, its dependent territories, its armed forces or its allies by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state.
Third, in respect of protocol III, we note that we have no intention of conducting nuclear tests in the south Pacific.