ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT
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British Policy
1. Like all members of the United Nations, Britain is committed to the search for realistic and verifiable measures of arms control and disarmament which will reduce the balance of forces while maintaining security, both national and international, at lower levels of risk and expense. Our aim is the prevention of war and and creation of conditions in which the world can move towards greater prosperity and cooperation.
2. We are working to achieve balanced disarmament in both nuclear and conventional forces, through a gradual step-by-step process. This follows closely the approach endorsed by the international community at the UN Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. But as the Final Document of UNSSD recognised, progress towards world disarmament will depend not on declarations of intent but on the successful negotiation of a number of specific arms control measures.
3.
For example, Britain has supported the efforts of the
United States and Soviet Union to reach agreement on the limitation of strategic arms, and we have emphasised the importance of continuing the SALT process. We have also given our strong support to the new US Administration's decision to pursue negotiations with the Soviet Union on limiting long-range theatre nuclear forces such as the Cruise and SS20 missiles, and we are taking a full part in the NATO consultations on this subject.
4.
We have been engaged with the United States and Soviet Union in talks on the cessation of nuclear weapons tests. We have signed an agreement with the Soviet Union on the prevention of accidental nuclear war. As a depositary power for the Non-Proliferation Treaty we have worked to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and we have given the non-nuclear states an assurance about nuclear weapons not being used against them. We support the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in regions where
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