§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what is his policy towards proposals for a verifiable international treaty to ban all deployment of chemical and biological weapons;
(2) what consideration his Department has given to proposals for a complete and total international ban on chemical weapons.
§ Mr. WaldegraveWe participate actively in the negotiations currently taking place at the conference on disarmament in Geneva for a comprehensive and effectively verifiable prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons and of their destruction. Such a ban is a major United Kingdom 205W and NATO arms control priority. We are party to both the 1925 Geneva protocol which prohibits the use in war of chemical and biological weapons, and the 1972 biological weapons convention which prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons.