Nuclear Weapons

HL Deb 14 February 2002 vol 631 c163WA

Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What happened to the proposal put to the United Nations by the Australian Government to ban nuclear weapons. [HL2693]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean

The recommendations of the 1996 Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons have in many ways been overtaken by the agreement the UK helped broker at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York in May 2000. The final document of the conference provides a plan, based on achievable steps and agreed by all parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, on the way forward towards nuclear non-proliferation and the ultimate goal of global nuclear disarmament.