Trident And Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones

A letter in the Independent today:

A Parliamentary vote on a decision to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system should, at the very least, be delayed. The Government's White Paper on defence [has] no consideration of recent multilateral efforts to control nuclear-weapons proliferation.

I refer in the first place to the agreement on a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia reached in September last year; and second, to China's agreement to sign a treaty to establish a nuclear-weapon free zone in South-east Asia in October. Now with the latest breakthrough in the north-east Asia six-party talks, we have a practical step towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

Given these initiatives, a decision to replace Trident could be seen as a retrograde move, one which may reverse instead of enable these as yet fragile yet encouragingly positive trends.

Jenny Clegg
CND National Council member