§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many nuclear warheads assigned to NATO control have been withdrawn from deployment since April; what types of warhead they were; what has been done with the nuclear material recovered from the warheads; and whether the withdrawals were under multilateral or bilateral agreements or by unilateral decision;
(2) how many nuclear warheads were deployed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and in what countries, in April 1959, 1969, 1979 and 1989.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonIn 1979, NATO Defence Ministers agreed to reduce by 1,000 the number of NATO nuclear warheads stockpiled in Europe. In 1983, at their meeting in Montebello, the Ministers decided to reduce the stockpile by a further 1,400 warheads. Those two actions together have resulted in bringing the NATO nuclear stockpile in Europe to its lowest level for more than 20 years. The level is being further reduced as warheads are removed in association with the implementation of the INF treaty. All the 2,400 warheads removed were the property of the United States Government; the disposal of the nuclear materials contained in them is therefore a matter for the United States Government. Details of the types and location of NATO's nuclear warheads in Europe are classified, but the number of NATO LRINF and SRINF systems with nuclear-capable variants is set out in figures 18 and 19 of volume 1 of the Statement on Defence Estimates 1988 (Cm 344-I).