§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they blocked Conference on Disarmament Doc CD/520/REV 2, which sought to initiate multilateral negotiations of a treaty for the prohibition of all nuclear weapon tests; and if so why.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Young)It has long been our policy that solutions to outstanding verification issues would have to be more apparent before it would be appropri-ate to resume negotiations proper. But we remain ready to discuss at the Conference on Disarmament, with other interested parties, the issues of verification and the possible scope of an agreement. This approach is reflected in the long-standing draft mandate for future work of the Western Group at the Conference on Disarmament. We regret that other countries have so far not accepted it.