HL Deb 30 March 1988 vol 495 cc856-7WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will make clear, well before the inauguration of a new American President, that in their view the anti-ballistic missile treaty should be observed "strictly", that they would not support the deployment of anti-ballistic missiles by either the United States or the Soviet Union beyond those permitted by that treaty, and that they do not endorse the view that nuclear weapons can be rendered "impotent and obsolete" through the deployment of weapons which would be in breach of the ABM treaty.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Glenarthur)

Our views on this subject are already clear. We place importance on the strict observation by all states of their treaty obligations: but as a non-party to the anti-ballistic missile treaty we have no locus to interpret it. Our position on anti-ballistic missile defences is set out in the Camp David Four Points agreed by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister and President Reagan in December 1984.