Trident Missiles

(asked on 17th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of lifting the cap on the number of Trident nuclear warheads the UK can stockpile on negotiations at the next Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 30th March 2021

The UK will continue to work for a successful NPT Review Conference that continues to lay the groundwork and helps build the trust and confidence necessary for multilateral disarmament, as well as strengthening the non-proliferation and peaceful uses pillars of the Treaty. We will continue to play a leading role in developing nuclear disarmament verification, on which our ability to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons will depend. We will also continue to build trust and confidence amongst nuclear weapon states, and between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states.

As coordinator of the P5 Process in 2019 and 2020, we pushed forward work on transparency, leading the way with our consultation exercise on the UK's national implementation report that has now been taken up by others, and securing agreement to a presentation by the nuclear weapon states of their national nuclear doctrines at the Review Conference. We look forward to continuing these discussions and picking up other important issues such as strategic risk reduction.

As we approach the NPT Review Conference, we will continue to demonstrate our commitment to all pillars of the NPT, including disarmament.

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