Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of China about nuclear disarmament verification.

The UK strongly supports effective nuclear disarmament verification as a vital step towards eventual nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament verification has been regularly discussed with all five Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Nuclear Weapons States as part of the so called 'P5 process', including at the first meeting in 2009 and at a dedicated meeting in 2012, both chaired by the UK. There have also been two bilateral meetings between UK and Chinese technical institutions involved in disarmament verification research, and both China and the UK participated in the UN Group of Governmental Experts to consider the role of verification in advancing nuclear disarmament.

More broadly, the UK holds a regular Non-Proliferation Dialogue with China which allows for discussions on issues including nuclear security architecture, arms control and nuclear disarmament. The most recent Dialogue took place in November 2019 where the UK encouraged China to re-join the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification.