§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his oral answer of 14 April, to the hon. Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle),Official Report, column 830, if he will set out the reasons why Her Majesty's Government regard it as a 181W disastrous mistake by the Ukranian Parliament to hold the view that the Ukraine should not relinquish the nuclear weapons held by Ukraine.
§ Mr. Garel-JonesUnder the Lisbon protocol to START I, Ukraine is committed to ratification of START I and early accession to the non-proliferation treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state. Fulfilment of these commitments will influence the extent to which co-operation and partnership between Ukraine and the west can be developed. A decision to retain nuclear weapons would jeopardise the implementation of START I, and thus START II, and would risk weakening the NPT. We believe it is in the interests of global security, and that of Ukraine, that the START reductions should be carried out and the NPT strengthened.