NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT ASPIRATIONS AND THE NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY REVIEW CONFERENCE

That this House warmly welcomes the statement by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in the debate on global security and non-proliferation on 4 March 2010 that `This is the year when the world can. . .demonstrate its seriousness on creating a nuclear-free world'; believes that 2010 could be seen historically as the moment when the international community decided to go firmly down the disarmament route; and further believes that the credibility of UK attempts to secure from other signatory states the long-term compliance with the requirements of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at its quinquennial review conference at the United Nations in New York in May 2010 would be robustly enhanced if Ministers took the bold decision to announce in advance, or as part of UK submissions to the conference, that further work on the replacement for Trident which will have cost £23.8 million by April 2010 for the replacement of the nuclear warhead design alone, will be frozen and that the UK will concentrate on developing verifiable nuclear weapons decommissioning and dismantling procedures to assist agreement on a global regime of nuclear disarmament.