Nuclear Weapons (Hansard, 9 February 1994)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the agenda of the 1994 session of the conference on disarmament in Geneva; and how the quantity of work to be done in the conference on disarmament in 1994 has changed from that of previous years.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The agenda of the conference on disarmament remains the same as in 1993, and the following ad hoc committees have again been established: nuclear test ban; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; transparency in armaments; and prevention of an arms race in outer space. The overall quantity of work has not changed.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will ensure that all statements made by representatives of Her Majesty's Government at the conference on disarmament are placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The working documents of the conference on disarmament contain verbatim texts of the statements of the delegates of all governments represented at the Conference, including those of Her Majesty's Government. Copies of these documents are normally placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consideration Her Majesty's Government are giving to offering an additional voluntary financial contribution to the costs of the 1995 non-proliferation treaty review and extension conference and the preparatory arrangements thereof.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
Arrangements as to how costs for administration relating to the non-proliferation treaty extension and review conference are to be shared by states party to the treaty are currently being considered. However, as a co-depositary of the treaty, and in accordance with past practice, we have made clear our willingness to contribute significantly more to conference costs than would be the case under the regular United Nations budget scale.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the United Kingdom's annual contribution to the costs of the conference on disarmament; and what consideration Her Majesty's Government are giving to offering an additional voluntary financial contribution towards these costs.

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg
The United Kingdom contributes to the costs of the conference on disarmament through its contribution to the United Nations regular budget from which the conference is fully funded. No voluntary contributions are made to the conference on disarmament.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the position of Her Majesty's Government on the appointment of Miguel Marin Bosch of Mexico to be chair of the ad hoc committee on a nuclear test ban at the conference on disarmament.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
We shall work constructively in the committee, under Senor Marin Bosch's chairmanship, for an effective comprehensive test ban treaty.
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