Government and Military

From: Alan Lawson

Directorate of Nuclear Policy

Room 2/39

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Metropole Building, Northumberland Avenue, LONDON, WC2N 5B

Telephone (Switchboard) 020 7218 9000 Date: 25th March 2004

Trident Ploughshares,

Thank you for your recent letter to the Prime Minister, which states the position of the Trident Ploughshares group, and in which you raise several points concerning, for the most part, the maintenance of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

The Government respects the strength and commitment with which you advocate your point of view. As you are aware, the UK has made substantial progress on our global nuclear disarmament obligations under the NPT (Art VI). This has included:

The withdrawal and dismantling of our maritime tactical nuclear capability (nuclear depth charges), the withdrawal and dismantling of the RAF’s WE 77 nuclear bomb and the termination of the nuclear Lance missile and artillery roles that we undertook with US nuclear weapons held under dual-key arrangements. This left Polaris (and later Trident) as our only nuclear weapons system.

These, and other very considerable undertakings, have led to our justly being considered the most "forward-leaning" of the NWS. We are the only nuclear power that has so far been prepared to reduce to a single nuclear deterrent. France has reduced from 6 delivery systems (in 1991) to two. By contrast, Russia and China both continue to maintain the full triad of systems, as does the US.

There has been extensive correspondence in the past on many of the issues that you raise, and the Government’s position on them is a matter of record. We abide our policies which have been stated publicly and published on a number of occasions (including at the NPT Review Conference and Preparatory Committee meetings) and we believe they are still current and valid and have been clearly and frequently explained.

We shall continue to act within international law and our international obligations and are determined to combat WMD proliferation (as set out in the Defence White Paper and other Government documents, most recently in the Prime Minister’s speech on the continuing global terror threat (5 March). We remain committed to the NPT and are continuing to participate active ly in the NPT Review process and to pursue the nuclear disarmament verification studies that the Atomic Weapons Establishment conducting for the MOD).

I hope this is helpful.

Alan Lawson

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