Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

HC Deb 30 November 1988 vol 142 cc309-10W

Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on initiatives currently planned by Her Majesty's Government in preparation for the 1990 nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference.

Mr. Waldegrave

We intend to play an active role in the 1990 review conference of the non-proliferation treaty and in the preparations for it. With our co-depositary powers and other parties to the treaty we co-sponsored the United Nations resolution notifying the Secretary-General that the conference will take place. The parties have established a preparatory committee for the conference and we are in the process of discussing practical arrangements with other treaty partners.

We have informed the United Nations Secretariat that the United Kingdom is prepared to make an advance payment in the first quarter of 1989 of £100,000, a sum equivalent to virtually the whole of the estimated final proportion of the costs of the conference to be borne by this country. We have appealed to other parties to the treaty to consider making similar advance payments.