To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is on the proposals of the US delegation to the preparatory committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference in New York on 5 May 2009 in respect of a fissile material cut-off treaty. (276307)

We welcome the proposals made by the US delegation at this year’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee in support of a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT).

The UK believes that an FMCT is essential for multilateral nuclear disarmament, and is one of the six steps that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary identified as necessary in order to achieve the conditions needed to help achieve a world free of nuclear weapons at the launch of the ‘Lifting the nuclear shadow’ policy information paper on 4 February 2009.

It is our hope that the Conference on Disarmament will soon adopt a Programme of Work which will include the start of negotiations on an FMCT.