Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action has been undertaken by Her Majesty's Government to encourage South Africa to become a signatory of the nonproliferation treaty.
§ Mr. WaldegraveWe have urged South Africa to accede to the NPT on numerous occasions, notably at meetings between South African and NPT depository powers representatives. The most recent such meeting was held in Vienna on 11–12 December 1989.
I raised this matter with the South African Government during my visit to South Africa on 19 September.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government have called on any non-proliferation treaty signatory state to complete subsidiary safeguard arrangements with the International Atomic Energy Agency since the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.
§ Mr. WaldegraveNo.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline any changes in Her Majesty's Government's policy on the responsibilities of the non-proliferation treaty signatories between the disarmament committee of 23 February 1967 and the present day.
§ Mr. WaldegraveOur policy on the responsibility of NPT signatories remains that they should abide by their commitments under the treaty. As regards the clauses relating to disarmament, we welcome the progress made in this direction since 1967 through SALT and the INF and CFE treaties, and we look forward to an early conclusion of the START negotiations and the ratification of the threshold test ban treaty and the peaceful nuclear explosions treaty.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement outlining Her Majesty's Government's position on article VII of main committee II in the recent fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference relating to South African nuclear capability.
§ Mr. WaldegraveA proposal to establish a nuclearweapon-free zone in Africa was discussed in main committee 2 of the fourth NPT review conference. In principle we are in favour of such a zone because of its nuclear non-proliferation benefits. We have called upon South Africa on many occasions to submit all its nuclear installations and facilities to IAEA safeguards and to accede to the non-proliferation treaty.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what correspondence he has received from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the European proliferation information centre concerning the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference.
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§ Mr. WaldegraveThis Department has received several letters from members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament about nuclear non-proliferation issues since the fourth non-proliferation treaty review conference. To the best of my knowledge, we have not received any recent correspondence from the European proliferation information centre.
Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures have been taken by Her Majesty's Government to promote a nuclear weapons-free zone in the middle east since the adoption of paragraph 13 in article VII of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe United Kingdom has since 1980 joined consensus in the first committee of the United Nations General Assembly on successive resolutions sponsored by Egypt calling for a middle east nuclear-weapons-free zone, making clear that our support is conditional on such a zone being acceptable to all states in the region.