Cross-party delegation will talk with their US counterparts.
From next Tuesday (8 September 2009), the most senior cross-party parliamentary delegation focused on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation ever to visit Washington will be holding talks with key Senators and administration officials. Their meetings come at a critical and timely juncture with:
In this issue: BASIC and Getting to Zero ; Commitments to disarmament and arms control ; Country reports ; Missile defense
Gordon Brown’s roadmap towards the NPT Review Conference appears under-developed in key areas.
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:
Anne Penketh has covered diplomatic and disarmament issues in the US, nuclear weapon states, Iran and North Korea
BASIC is pleased to announce that Anne Penketh, long-time Diplomatic Editor at The Independent in London, will be leading BASIC\’s Washington team working to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Anne is an international journalist who has covered diplomatic and disarmament issues for many years with first hand, on-the-ground experience of the US, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Paul Ingram, Executive Director of BASIC, says:
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:
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.”
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.