Test Ban Treaty (Hansard, 5 July 1994)

§ Mr. Hutton
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the draft comprehensive test ban treaty tabled by the Australian Government in Geneva on 31 March.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
On 31 March, the Australian Government put forward a resource paper, in the form of a draft comprehensive test ban treaty, to aid the work of the nuclear test ban ad hoc committee. This resource paper contains interesting and useful ideas.

§ Mr. Hutton
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his assessment of the likely duration of negotiations for a comprehensive test ban treaty after the first two sessions of talks at the conference on disarmament; and if he will make a statement on the issues remaining to be resolved.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
There has been good progress in the second session of the comprehensive test ban treaty negotiations. We hope that similar progress can be made during the final 1994 session of the conference on disarmament from 25 July to 7 September. It is difficult, however, to assess how much longer the negotiating process is likely to take. The CTB delegations will agree to the treaty as a whole, rather than in sections. Major issues on which negotiations are likely to focus include verification, the organisation, duration, scope, and entry into force.

§ Mr. Hutton
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress being made towards a comprehensive test ban treaty at the conference on disarmament in Geneva.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
There has been good progress in the second session of the comprehensive test ban treaty negotiations. Delegations have shown a strong commitment to moving forward towards agreement on an effective, verifiable CTB. The United Kingdom team has been fully involved in the debate, and has made valuable contributions to the work completed during this session. In particular, the contribution by the United Kingdom friend of the chair in the verification working group has been warmly welcomed.

§ Mr. Hutton
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment Her Majesty's Government have made of progress towards preparing a draft comprehensive test ban treaty by the two working groups of the conference on disarmament's ad hoc committee on a nuclear test ban.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
The two working groups have made excellent progress. The working group on verification has conducted intensive discussions on the various monitoring techniques which might be deployed in an international verification system. The working group on legal and institutional issues has completed the first or 139W second readings of all main draft articles. Both working groups have produced compilations of draft treaty text to be used as the basis of negotiations in the next session.

§ Mr. Hutton
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the chair of the ad hoc committee on a nuclear test ban treaty at the conference on disarmament in Geneva had not presented an official draft treaty before the end of the second session; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
The chairman of the ad hoc group on a nuclear test ban has decided that the composite texts produced by the two working groups—on verification and on legal and institutional issues—should be put forward for the next session as the basis for negotiations. We welcome Ambassador Marin-Bosch's pragmatic attitude in promoting the committee's efforts to develop these composite texts into a rolling text.