Written question asked by Lord Jopling (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Triesman (Labour) on Thursday, 4 May 2006.

Disarmament

Question: What are the issues on which a consensus agreement has not been reached thus holding up progress on United Nations disarmament agreements in Geneva; and which countries have blocked agreements to each of the issues.

Answer: The Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva has been unable to reach consensus on a programme of work for more than eight years. During that time the only issue which all countries have agreed should be taken forward is a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT). The Government have called continuously for the immediate commencement of negotiations on an FMCT. Unfortunately, many other countries have sought to link progress on an FMCT to progress on a range of other disarmament-related issues. This has led to the stalemate that we see today in the CD. As my honourable friend the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Kim Howells, said during his recent address to the CD in March this year, the package approach to starting substantive work in the CD has not delivered a consensus agreement on the way forward. But the CD is too important a mechanism to allow to remain inactive. It is therefore time to take a more pragmatic approach and start negotiating an FMCT.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 5350; 681 c97-8WA
Session: 2005-06
Related items: Disarmament
Monday, 15 May 2006
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Arms control International cooperation United Nations Conference on Disarmament
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk