NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY REVIEW CONFERENCE

That this House notes that the 2018 Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference takes place between 23 April and 4 May; commemorates 2018 as the 50th anniversary of the NPT opening for signature; recognises the opportunity that this anniversary offers the Government to engage with global nuclear disarmament initiatives, both within the NPT Preparatory Committee and the UN High­-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament; expresses disappointment that despite 50 years since the signing of the NPT, nuclear proliferation remains a major global security risk and attempts at nuclear disarmament have fallen short of the progress as envisaged by the NPT; calls on the Government to inject new life into the NPT following the failure of the 2015 Review Conference to agree a Final Document, and to use the Preparatory Committee to prepare for progress on global nuclear stockpile reduction, the development of nuclear-weapons-free zones, the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and the negotiation of a fissile material cut-off treaty; commends the 57 countries who have signed, and six countries who have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in an attempt to break the impasse in the NPT process; and reminds the Government that it has hailed the NPT as the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament and should therefore do all it can to ensure this foundation is strengthened at the NPT Preparatory Committee.