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Weapons And Warfare Techniques

Volume 941: debated on Monday 9 January 1978

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asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list in the Official Report all the treaties, conventions or other international agreements relating to the control, prohibition or use, of weapons or techniques of warfare to which the United Kingdom is a party and any which are currently under consideration.

The main treaties relating to the control, prohibition or use of weapons or techniques of warfare to which the United Kingdom is party are:—

The Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, 1925.
The Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water, 1963.
The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 1967.
Additional Protocols I and II of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, 1967.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof, 1971.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, 1972.
The United Kingdom signed the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques in 1977 and intends to ratify it in due course. A bilateral Agreement with the Soviet Union on the Prevention of Accidental Outbreak of Nuclear War was signed on 10th October 1977.Arms limitation measures have also been incorporated in certain peace treaties and other agreements, notably the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. On 12th December 1977, the United Kingdom signed two protocols additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which represent a valuable advance in humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts.The principal arms control treaties currently under consideration by the United Kingdom with other States are a comprehensive nuclear test ban and agreement on the mutual reduction of armed forces and armaments and associated measures in central Europe and a convention banning the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons and on their destruction.