The UK government’s Road to 2010

Gordon Brown’s roadmap towards the NPT Review Conference appears under-developed in key areas.

UK briefers suggest delay to Trident replacement

At an informal briefing today, journalists were informed by senior government officials that the \’Initial Gate\’ decision involving the replacement of Trident, the United Kingdom\’s nuclear weapons system, will be delayed until after the NPT Review Conference next year. Paul Ingram, Executive Director of BASIC commented:

Majority of UK voters now against Trident replacement

I have no doubt that the latest opinion poll published this evening by the Guardian reflects the significant media coverage that Trident replacement has seen recently, as well as the cracking of the ranks at the very top of all three principal parties around replacement. This is very encouraging for those looking for public interest in the recent discussions over moves towards a world free of nuclear weapons:

Britain ready to put Trident on the table

PM announcement at G8 Summit

Gordon Brown announced today in Italy at the G8 Summit his willingness to put Britain\’s nuclear arsenal on the table in negotiations at Obama\’s nuclear summit next March. Paul Ingram, BASIC\’s Executive Director said: “This very concrete offer from the UK is clearly designed to create a spirit of multilateral cooperation between the nuclear weapon states in advance of the NPT Review Conference. It is to be strongly welcomed and we hope that other nuclear weapon states can respond accordingly.”

START follow-on: Reductions – not radical optimists – can focus on limits

In conjunction with the Obama-Medvedev Summit in Moscow today, the United States and Russia reached a Joint Understanding (White House press release) for establishing new limitations on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles under the START Follow-on Treaty.