Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (Hansard, 18 October 1990)

§ Mr. Flynn
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if during his official visit to Argentina in early October, the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Watford (Mr. Garel-Jones), raised with ministers or officials of the Argentine Government the conditions under which Argentina would sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
My hon. Friend did raise nuclear non-proliferation with President Menem and Foreign Minister Cavallo during his visit to Argentina, and they discussed Argentine attitudes towards the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's attitude towards a nuclear test ban treaty following the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
Our position remains that, for the foreseeable future, the United Kingdom's security will depend on deterrence based, in part, on possession of nuclear weapons. This will mean a continuing requirement to test to ensure our weapons remain up to date and effective.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish in theOfficial 900W Report (a) the remarks of the President of the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference concerning article VI and (b) preambular paragraphs 8 to 12 of the treaty; and if he will make a statement outlining Her Majesty's Government's response to President de Rivero's remarks.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
A record of the remarks of the President of the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference will be placed in the House of Commons Library when it becomes available. We share President de Rivero's assessment that agreement would have been possible on the final document proposed by the President but for the objections of one delegation.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the reasons and the policy basis upon which Her Majesty's Government submitted annex A to section I of the non-proliferation treaty document MC I/I at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference; and if he will list the countries that supported annex A.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
This text, on the nuclear capabilities of certain countries not party to the treaty, was one of several working papers put forward by various countries at the non-proliferation treaty review conference for discussion. The text was supported by a number of countries.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the texts of the proposals put by Her Majesty's Government to committees I, II and III at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
No. Most of our proposals were put forward as the conference unfolded, often orally. It would be meaningless to publish texts in isolation.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the reasons why the United Kingdom Delegation submitted the document on final language to main committee III at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The United Kingdom delegation was one of a number of delegations to put forward suggestions on which the review conference secretariat drew in preparing a first draft of language for the final document for circulation in main committee III.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline any changes made in Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the enforcement of full scope safeguards on all nuclear exports during 1990 and publish the response of the United Kingdom delegation to documents NPT/CONF IV/DC/I/ ADO 3(B) presented to the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
There have been no changes during 1990 in our long-standing position on the desirability of requiring full-scope safeguards as a condition of nuclear supply.
The conference achieved consensus language on this matter, which reads as follows: The Conference further urges the nuclear supplier States to require as a necessary condition for the transfer of relevant 901W nuclear supplies to non-nuclear-weapon States under new supply arrangements, such a commitment and acceptance of such safeguards.
We will be discussing the question with other states concerned.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the response of the United Kingdom delegation at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference to the comments of the Nuclear Control Institute on the implementation of safeguards.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The United Kingdom delegation did not respond at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference to any comments of the Nuclear Control Institute on the implementation of safeguards.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish the main points of and Government reaction to, article VI and preambular paragraphs 8 to 12 set out at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
Article VI and preambular paragraphs 8–12 of the non-proliferation treaty primarily concern the responsibilities of states to work towards nuclear and general disarmament and to cease nuclear testing. Although these are long-term goals, considerable progress has been made since 1985 in arms control, in particular through the INF treaty and strategic arms reduction talks, and with the prospect of a treaty on conventional forces in Europe. But we do not believe that a cessation of nuclear testing is possible while we depend upon nuclear weapons for deterrence and in the absence of completely reliable means of verification.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will ensure that copies of all the documents submitted to the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference and its three main committees by Her Majesty's Government are deposited in the Library.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
Copies of the following documents submitted to the Conference are being placed in the Library of the House:

(a) a paper on United Kingdom implementation of the treaty;

(b) the speech which I gave to the conference on 22 August.

(c) a paper jointly submitted with the other two NPT depositary powers about a combined review and extension conference in 1995.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the response of Her Majesty's Government to(a) document NPT/CONF IV/M E II/WP 10 and (b) document NPT CONF IV/MC II/wpio/REV I contained in annex 4 and 5 of the main report and presented at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
Document NPT/CONF IV/MC II/WP10 was a working paper presented by the three depositary powers of the NPT and proposed language for the final document relevant to article X of the treaty concerning a conference in 1995 to extend the treaty document NPT/CONF Iv/MC 11/WP10/REV 1 was introduced by the depositary powers as a revision to their original working paper, in an effort to achieve consensus.902W Consensus could not be reached. Accordingly, the second main committee of the conference decided to annex these papers to its report.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish Her Majesty's Government's response to the proposals on the extension of applications for nuclear safeguards to cover peace orientated nuclear facilities in non-proliferation treaty signatory states, outlined in the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The conference achieved consensus language on this point, which reads as followsThe Conference reiterates the calls for the continued pursuit of the principle of universal application of IAEA safeguards to all peaceful nuclear activities in all States". The United Kingdom joined the consensus.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what efforts were made by the United Kingdom delegation to achieve the adoption of a joint declaration at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference; and if he will make a statement on the reasons why the conference failed to adopt such a declaration.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The United Kingdom made every effort to achieve a consensus final document. In the end, consensus was blocked by one delegation.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish Her Majesty's Government's response to the comment in paragraph I in article 3, of the report of main committee II at the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference about the proliferation dangers posed by unsafeguarding nuclear activities in non-nuclear weapons states.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
We fully endorse the statement in the report of main committee II to the effect that unsafeguarded nuclear activities, which could lead to the spread of nuclear weapons capabilities in non-nuclear weapon states, pose serious proliferation dangers. This highlights the importance of the application of IAEA safeguards.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish a list of all documents submitted in the name of Her Majesty's Government to the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference; how many copies of each document were produced; and what was the response of conference participants to the documents.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The following documents were submitted formally by us to the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference:

(a) a paper on the United Kingdom's implementation of the treaty;

(b) the speech which I delivered to the conference on 22 August.

We do not know precisely how many copies of each document were produced. Conference participants welcomed a number of the ideas and statements in the documents.
In addition, our delegation put forward several suggestions for language for the final document.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish Her 903W Majesty's Government's response to the proposals outlined in the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference to offer any nuclear materials installed for verification by submission to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The proposals resulting from the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference are currently being considered. Our policy will continue to be that all civil nuclear material held in the United Kingdom should be subject to Euratom safeguards under the treaty of 1957 establishing the European Atomic Energy Community and to the terms of the UK/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement of September 1976.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the reasons for the United Kingdom delegation's reservation of judgment on paragraph 20 of the report of main committee II concerning safeguards, at the recent fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
We reserved our position on this paragraph because we had an alternative formulation. Consensus language was eventually achieved.