§ Mr. Bennasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response Her Majesty's Government have given to the Soviet proposal put before the United Nations special session on disarmament which would outlaw chemical weapons and provide for on-site inspection to verify the destruction of existing stocks.
§ Mr. HurdIn her speech to the Special Session on 23 June, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister noted that the Soviet Union seemed ready to accept the need for systematic on-site inspection in respect of a chemical weapons treaty.
The United Kingdom has long considered that no convention banning chemical weapons could be concluded without adequate provisions for verification. We tabled our proposals for these provisons in the Committee on disarmament on 18 February. We will comment further on the Russian proposals when the Committee's working group on chemical weapons resumes this week.