§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is now the policy towards multilateral action on arms control and disarmament with particular reference to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; and what commitments on behalf of the United Kingdom remain central to their policy in each of those spheres. [HL2688]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean:The Government continue to regard the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (N PT), Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) as central to combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The UK regards the NPT a key component of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Her Majesty's Government's policy reflects widespread agreement that: the non-nuclear weapon states undertook not to acquire nuclear weapons and to put their civil programmes under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards; the five nuclear weapon states would pursue disarmament negotiations and facilitate the transfer of peaceful nuclear technology under safeguards.
The BWC and the CWC are the legal foundation of the international regime which prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer and use of chemical and biological weapons. We continue to urge universal accession to both conventions. In the CWC context the UK took a leading role at the convention's First Review Conference (28 April—9 May 2003), tabling 10 papers. The UK was instrumental in ensuring a successful outcome to the Fifth Review Conference of the BWC in November 2002, which reached agreement on a work programme for the next three years. Her Majesty's Government hope that this will lead to further concrete steps to strengthen the convention.