Defence and Disarmament

HC Deb 24 January 1992 vol 202 cc385-6W

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the resolutions on defence and disarmament(a) sponsored and (b) supported by the United Kingdom at the 46th regular session of the United Nations General Assembly; and if he will make a statement on reasons in each case for the way in which the United Kingdom voted.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

At the forty-sixth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, the United Kingdom co-sponsored the following resolutions on defence and disarmament matters:—46/25—Transparency of Military Expenditures. 46/26—Compliance with Arms Limitation and Disarmament Agreements. 46/35A—Third Review Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Publication of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. 46/35B—Chemical and Bacteriological (Biological) Weapons: measure to uphold the authority on the 1925 Geneva Protocol. 46/35C—Chemical and Bacteriological (Biological) Weapons. 46/36F—Regional Disarmament, including Confidence-Building Measures. 46/36G—Confidence and Security-Building Measures and Conventional Disarmament in Europe. 46/36L—Transparency in Armaments. 46/361—Regional Disarmament.

The United Kingdom supported the following resolutions on defence and disarmament matters:— 46/31—Establishment of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone in South Asia. 46/33—Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. 46/27—Education and Information for Disarmament. 46/30—Establishment of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the region of the Middle East. 46/34B—Implementation of the Declaration on the Denuclearisation of Africa. 46/36A—Second Review Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Use of Prohibition on Military or Any Other Hostile Environmental Modification Techniques. 46/36B—Study on charting potential uses of resources allocated to military activities for civilian endeavours to protect the environment. 46/36C—Relationship between Disarmament and Development. 46/36E—Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Radiological Weapons. 46/3611—International Arms Transfers. 46/36K—Prohibition of the Dumping of Radioactive Wastes. 46/37A—World Disarmament Campaign. 46/37B—Regional Confidence-Building Measures. 46/37E—United Nations Disarmament Fellowship, Training and Advisory Services Programmes. 46/38A—Report of the Disarmament Commission. 46/38D—The Transfer of High Technology with Military Applications. 46/40—Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effect.

Space and time do not allow us to explain our voting in each, but details on individual resolutions can of course be provided if required.