§ Mr. Harry GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the amount of chemical weaponry held by former Soviet Union countries; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe former Soviet chemical warfare stockpile, which the Russian authorities say is now held entirely within their territory, is the largest and most sophisticated in the world. We estimate that the stockpile is greater than the 50,000 tonnes of agent that the Soviet authorities claimed it to be. The chemical weapons convention in Geneva continues to make progress towards a global ban on these weapons.