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Chemical Weapons

Volume 330: debated on Wednesday 26 April 1972

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My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action is being taken to implement the commitment in the biological weapons convention that the contracting parties will work also for the abolition of chemical weapons of warfare.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
(BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE)

My Lords, chemical weapons have been one of the principal subjects of discussion in the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament during the present session There are many difficult technical and political problems to be resolved if we are to achieve the abolition of these weapons. The United Kingdom is playing a full part in the Geneva discussions.

My Lords, while thanking the noble Baroness for that reply, may I ask whether she is aware that I want to pay tribute to the convention on biological weapons? This is the first real step to disarmament. But did it not include a promise that the problem of chemical weapons would be seriously considered? Have not Sweden and the Soviet Union now proposed conventions on this matter? Will the British Government give their support?

My Lords, the noble Lord is quite correct in saying that the convention on biological weapons undertook that the next subject for discussion would be the abolition of chemical weapons. This is the subject of discussion now in Geneva. The Soviet Union have put forward a draft convention and the United States a very interesting, lengthy and practical working document. It is on this that we are engaged at present.

My Lords, may I ask the noble Baroness whether she is aware that on the technical side of this problem a study was made by the Secretary-General's group of experts (the greatest experts in the world on this aspect of disarmament) in 1969, but that subsequently the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research has published a six-volume study on the technical aspects of chemical warfare disarmament? Can the Government say how much more expert analysis they will need before being able to put forward a proposal?

My Lords, I understand that the real problem is the question of verification and also of up-dating verification procedures. This was not the subject of the convention on biological weapons.