To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has made an assessment of the merits of entering the Trident system into multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations prior to the start of the nuclear non- proliferation treaty review conference in May 2010. (317577)

The UK firmly believes that sustainable global nuclear disarmament can only be achieved through a multilateral process, and stands ready to engage in a future broader multilateral process when the conditions are right. The UK is actively working to create these conditions and is playing a leading role globally in the nuclear disarmament debate. These conditions include watertight measures to prevent further proliferation, further cuts to the world's two largest nuclear arsenals, and solutions to the technical, political and institutional challenges posed by nuclear disarmament.

We look forward to an agreement between the US and Russia to achieve significant cuts in their nuclear arsenals by agreeing a successor to the strategic arms reduction treaty. This will be a major contribution to our shared endeavour towards a world without nuclear weapons, and will help to build trust and pave the way in due course for greater reductions. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference in May 2010 will be an important opportunity to agree actions for the future on non-proliferation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy as well as on nuclear disarmament, but setting target dates for a multilateral disarmament process at this stage would not make headway given current political realities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to publish a statement of the Government’s approval to the nuclear non-proliferation review conference to be held in May 2010. (317849)

UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/61/70 of 6 December 2006 authorised the 2010 review conference of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The vote was 175 (for); 0 (abstentions); 3 (against). All 175 States party to the treaty present, including the United Kingdom, voted for the resolution. The three non-States party to the treaty (India, Israel and Pakistan) voted against. A copy of the Resolution, which was published on 3 January 2007 is available at:

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/498/63/PDF/N0649863.pdf?OpenElement