§ Mr. Strangasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affars what is the policy of Her Majesty's Government towards United States proposals, at the conferece on disarmament in Geneva, for mandatory short notice inspections as a necessary verification procedure for a chemical weapons ban.
§ Mr. EggarWe believe that the proposed chemical weapons convention will need two levels of verification. This would comprise first a mandatory system of inspection at certain declared sites: including verification of declaration and destruction of stocks and production facilities; and verification of non-production of chemical weapons in the civil chemical industry. Second, there would need to be a strigent challenge inspection regime as a deterrent against cheating at other sites. The United States proposals provide a valuable standard for the stringency that will be required for a challenge inspection regime.