§ Mr. Denzil Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline his proposals for the verification of a chemical weapons agreement.
§ Mr. MellorWe believe there must be an agreed and reliable system of information exchange and on-site inspections on a routine basis at, for example, facilities where chemical weapons are to be destroyed; and civil chemical plants where industrial chemicals posing a risk to the convention are manufactured or used. In addition, there will need to he a stringent challenge inspection regime intended to deter any state from breaching the convention.
A new international organisation would be created to conduct verification activities. I tabled a new paper setting out the arrangements needed to bring this body into operation when I visited the conference on disarmament on 14 July. Copies of the paper and of my speech to the conference will be deposited in the Libraries of the House.