TNAG-0538-FCO40-633-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 110

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3RD DRAFT

34.

OTHER ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT DEVELOPMENTS

The United Kingdom, pledged to play a full part in inter-

national efforts to reduce the risk of armed conflict, to

achieve disarmament and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons,

is actively involved in multilateral discussion of arms

limitation and disarmament issues in the Conference of the

Committee on Disarmament in Geneva and elsewhere. The Government

attaches major importance to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation

of Nuclear Weapons and to the Conference which, in May 1975 in

Geneva, will review the operation of the Treaty. As a depositary

power for the Treaty, the United Kingdom is playing an active part

in the detailed preparation for the Conference, as well as in

multilateral efforts to strengthen the Treaty and its purposes.

35. The United Kingdom sent a team of legal, medical and military

experts to the Conference of Government Experts held by the

International Committee of the Red Cross in Lucerne in September

and October 1974, which discussed weapons that may cause unneces-

sary suffering or have indiscriminate effects. The Conference

took place in the light of decisions taken at the Diplomatic

Conference on Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict, at which the

United Kingdom was also represented. The Government has contri-

buted constructively to discussion in the United Nations on a

range of disarmament issues including proposals for the establish-

ment of Nuclear Free Zones /IOPZ Arms Limitation in the Indian

Ocean 7. We have also participated in studies of the possibil-

ities of reducing military budgets.

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