Call to Ministers over Nuclear Agreement
Call to Ministers over Nuclear Agreement
By James Lyons, Political Correspondent, PA News
Tuesday 27 Jul 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3258428
Ministers today faced demands to come clean over the extent of US-UK nuclear
co-operation amid claims it could break international law.
The Mutual Defence Agreement breaches the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
according to the British-American Security Informational Council.
The anti-nuclear campaign group was advised by Matrix Chambers, co-founded
by Cherie Booth QC, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The exchange of information to improve atomic weapons and the transfer of
equipment, as outlined in the Agreement, is contrary to Article 1 of the
Treaty prohibiting the transfer of nuclear weapons, campaigners say.
They also highlight Article 6, which calls on signatories to pursue nuclear
disarmament.
That is rejected by the Ministry of Defence but Labour MP Alan Simpson
(Nottingham South) said there should be greater openness about what the
Agreement involves.
“It is like trying to pull teeth to get detailed information out of the
Ministry of Defence about the exchanges that have taken place,” Mr Simpson
told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
There were “a whole series of collaborative projects” under the Agreement,
which was recently renewed in Parliament without a vote and now requires
just an exchange of letters to continue for another decade.
“You have to assume those visits are not just because they have struck up
close friendships and like to swap holiday photographs.
“We either have to dismantle the arrangement or open it up to international
scrutiny.”
Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South), Liberal Democrat member of the Commons
Defence Select Committee, signed a motion calling for a full Parliamentary
debate on the issue.
“When people are negotiating and talking about something as catastrophic as
use of nuclear weapons or replacement of our existing nuclear weapons that
is something the public ought to know about,” he told Today.
“But I don’t think there is the slightest chance of the Government putting
any of this on hold. They will sign it when the Americans tell them to.”