§ Mr. Trippierasked the Lord Privy Seal what active steps towards arms control have been taken by Her Majesty's Government in the past year; and what is planned for the coming year.
§ Mr. HurdThe United Kingdom supports the strategic arms limitation talks process and has played an active part in NATO consultations on theatre nuclear forces arms control. We welcome the American decision to begin negotiations with the Soviet Union on this subject by the end of the year. In the multilateral field, we have made major contributions to the Geneva discussions on a comprehensive programme of disarmament, on security assurances to non-nuclear weapon States and on the prohibition of chemical weapons. We signed the United Nations Convention on Certain Inhumane Weapons, to the elaboration of which we had contributed. In the coming months we expect to join actively in preparations for the second United Nations special session on disarmament in 1982. All these activities are described in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's quarterly arms control newsletter, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.