$Unique_ID{bob00533} $Pretitle{} $Title{United Kingdom Dependencies} $Subtitle{} $Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC} $Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC} $Subject{britain nuclear soviet weapons security agreement disarmament states british treaty} $Date{1990} $Log{} Title: United Kingdom Book: Britain's Overseas Relations Author: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC Date: 1990 Dependencies There are 14 remaining British dependent territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Hong Kong; Montserrat; Pitcairn, Ducie, Henderson and Oeno; St Helena and St Helena Dependencies (Ascension, Tristan da Cunha); South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and the Turks and Caicos Islands. They have a combined population of 5.5 million, of which 5.3 million live in Hong Kong. Few are rich in natural resources, and some are scattered groups of islands. There are no permanent inhabitants in the British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Most dependencies have considerable self-government with their own legislature and civil service. Britain is generally responsible, through a Governor, for defence, internal security and foreign affairs. It is Britain's policy to give independence to those dependencies that want it and where it is practicable to do so, and not to force it on those which do not or where it is not practicable. In the case of the Falkland Islands, which is the subject of a territorial claim by Argentina, the inhabitants wish to retain the link with Britain. The Government is committed to the defence of the Islanders' right to live under a government of their own choosing. The Islanders' right of self-determination is reflected in the 1985 Falkland Islands Constitution. Argentina and Chile have claims to territory which overlaps part of the British Antarctic Territory. Claims to territorial sovereignty in the Antarctic, however, are suspended by the provisions of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Gibraltar is the subject of a territorial claim by Spain, which imposed border restrictions in the 1960s. Since the return of democracy to Spain, Britain and Spain have reached agreement on the method for handling their differences over Gibraltar, Spanish restictions being lifted in February 1985. Britain wishes to see the development of practical co-operation between Gibraltar and Spain to the benefit of both peoples and remains committed to honouring the wishes of the people of Gibraltar as to their future. In 1984 an agreement was signed between Britain and the People's Republic of China on the future of Hong Kong. Under the agreement, which was ratified by the two Governments in 1985, Britain will continue to be responsible for the administration of Hong Kong until 30 June 1997, when the territory will be restored to China. The Chinese Government will then establish a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs. It will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial powers and its government will be composed of local inhabitants. The laws currently in force in Hong Kong will remain basically unchanged, as will its present social and economic systems and its way of life. Private property rights and other rights and freedoms will be protected by law. These arrangements will remain in place for at least 50 years after 1997. International Peace and Security Britain is concerned to protect its territorial integrity and political independence, as well as the interests of its dependencies and of its allies, and pursues these objectives through a national security policy in which deterrence and defence are coupled with efforts towards removing or alleviating the causes of international tension and achieving balanced and verifiable international arms control and disarmament. British defence policy is based on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) which member countries regard as their guarantee of security, freedom and well-being, and as an important contributor to international peace and stability. The purpose of NATO is to enable its member countries to maintain peace with freedom. It pursues a strategy of deterrence, designed to convince any potential aggressor that the use of force, or the threat of it, carries risks far outweighing any likely advantage. At the same time NATO countries seek through international negotiations to reach arms control agreements which will enhance their security at lower levels of forces. Britain's defence resources are concentrated on key NATO tasks. However, the Government's defence policy is also designed to promote, whenever possible, British and more general Western interests outside the NATO area. In addition, Britain demonstrates its world-wide interests by periodic military deployments and exercises overseas; by supporting United Nations and other peacekeeping efforts; and by providing military assistance and training to a number of friendly countries. East-West Relations Britain seeks improvements in East-West relations based on a broader understanding and on the recognition that East and West have a common interest in peace and security at a lower level of weapons. The Government believes that both sides should avoid policies which risk provoking confrontation and should aim instead for mutual accommodation and co-operation while exercising restraint in the conduct of international relations both in Europe and in the rest of the world. This is explicitly recognised in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), which states that European security has to be considered in the broader context of world security. Britain is committed to doing everything possible to reduce the risks of war and to avoid misunderstanding. The Government is following a policy of increased contacts at all levels with the Soviet Union and its allies; the Prime Minister, for instance, visited Moscow in 1987 for talks with the Soviet leaders; she also met the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Mr Mikhail Gorvachev, at Brize Norton in December 1987 and the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary visited the Soviet Union in February 1988. Britain welcomed the signature by the United States and the Soviet Union of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (see p 89) in December 1987. Britain also welcomed the Geneva Agreement on Afghanistan signed in April 1988 by the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under the settlement, formally guaranteed by the United States and the Soviet Union, Soviet troops will be withdrawn over a period of nine months and the Afghan refugees allowed to return home. The phased withdrawal of Soviet troops began in May 1988. Britain hopes that the agreement will lead to a representative government in Afghanistan. CSCE Britain believes that full implementation by all participants of the provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act would lead to increased stability in Europe and improved co-operation between the 35 European and North American signatory states. While not a legally binding document, the Final Act established a large number of important political commitments and a code of behaviour for what the participants hope will in time become a more normal and open relationship between both governments and peoples in East and West. To this end it contains undertakings about security, respect for human rights, and co-operation in economic, humanitarian and other matters. Meetings to review the application of the Final Act took place in Belgrade in 1977-78 and in Madrid between 1980 and 1983; a third began in Vienna in November 1986. The Madrid meeting, at which it was decided that renewed efforts should be made to give full effect to the Final Act, also convened an experts' meeting in Ottawa on the subject of human rights, a cultural forum in Budapest in 1985 and a meeting concerning human contacts which took place in Berne in 1986. Britain and other Western countries have taken the opportunity of the Vienna meeting to highlight the failure of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries to implement many of the commitments contained in the Final Act, particularly in the areas of human rights, human contacts information. Together with its partners and allies, Britain has also tabled a number of new proposals to improve implementation in the future. As a result of the Madrid meeting, a Conference on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament took place in Stockholm between 1984 and 1986 at which Britain and its NATO allies proposed an accord that would lead to increased openness about military activities, thus reducing the likelihood of hostilities and the risk of miscalculation in times of tension. These proposals were incorporated in the Stockholm Document, signed by all 35 participating states in September 1986, which included advance notification and subsequent observation of planned military manoeuvres above specified thresholds and detailed information on their purpose, size, composition and dates, as well as provisions for their verification and on-site inspection. Britain and its NATO allies are considering the need for further confidence- and security-building measures and tabled at the Vienna CSCE meeting in July 1987 a proposal for a reconvened conference on such measures. Berlin Together with France, the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain is a signatory to the 1972 Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, which reaffirms the four countries' rights and responsibilities there, and provides for greatly improved travel and communications facilities between West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and East Berlin, and for the maintenance and development of the ties between West Berlin and the Federal Republic. Arms Control and Disarmament Britain is committed to the search for significant balanced and verifiable measures of arms control and disarmament, leading to increased security at lower levels of forces, and has played a prominent part in multilateral disarmament negotiations. Britain is a participating state in the Conference on Disarmament at Geneva, and in the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions negotiations at Vienna; it also takes an active part in disarmament deliberations under the auspices of the United Nations. Nuclear Weapons Britain strongly supports the negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union on nuclear and space arms, which began in Geneva in 1985. It fully shares the agreed objective of working out effective agreements aimed at preventing an arms race in space and terminating it on earth, at limiting and reducing nuclear arms and at strengthening strategic stability. The British Government expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the 1988 Moscow summit between the Soviet Union and the United States and believes that the series of discussions between the leaders of both countries has been positive and has brought new hope to the world. In December 1987 the British Government welcomed the signature in Washington by the United States and the Soviet Union of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which is aimed at eliminating within a three-year period their ground-launched intermediate-range nuclear (INF) missiles throughout the world. Under the Treaty, the first arms control agreement designed to eliminate a whole class of nuclear weapons, the United States would destroy some 400 deployed INF missiles and the Soviet Union about 1,700. Britain also expressed support for the agreement of the superpowers to work towards a treaty aimed at reducing strategic offensive arms by 50 per cent. However, Britain believes that after the conclusion of such an agreement further reductions in shorter-range nuclear weapons should only take place in conjunction with an agreement establishing a balance of conventional forces and armaments and the global elimination of chemical weapons. Britain's nuclear deterrent is the minimum necessary for credible deterrence and is very small in comparison with Soviet nuclear forces. It will continue to be a minimum force after the replacement of the submarine-launched Polaris with a modernised system known as Trident. In Britain's view the priority is therefore for reductions in the arsenals of the two superpowers. If a treaty was concluded reducing US and Soviet strategic missiles by 50 per cent, Trident would still represent a smaller proportion of the remaining Soviet strategic warheads than Polaris did in 1970. None the less, Britain has made it clear that, ifc the US and Soviet strategic arsenals were to be reduced by more than 50 per cent and there had been no significant changes in Soviet defensive capability, it would review the position and consider how best it could contribute to arms control in the light of the reduced threat. Britain has played a leading part in strengthening the regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is a party to the most widely supported arms control agreement in existence, the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is designed both to stop the spread of nuclear weapons by providing an assurance through international safeguards that nuclear facilities of non-nuclear-weapon states will not be used for making such weapons, and to protect the right of all countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Britain was the first nuclear-weapon state to conclude an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which administers the safeguards. Britain reaffirmed its full support for the Treaty at a review conference in 1985, and has been active in strengthening it by seeking the widest possible adherence. It has also undertaken not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states which are parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty or other internationally binding commitments not to manufacture or acquire nuclear explosive devices: this assurance would, however, not apply in the case of an attack on Britain, its dependent territories, its armed forces or its allies by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear-weapon state. Britain believes that limiting the security assurances to these states provides further support for nuclear non-proliferation. Britain is also fully committed to progress towards a comprehensive, verifiable ban on all nuclear tests, and in recent years has tabled papers on verification at the Conference on Disarmament. However, solutions to verification problems need to be clearer before it would be appropriate to resume negotiations. The British Government thinks that the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in certain parts of the world could contribute to regional security, to non-proliferation and to disarmament in general, provided that nuclear weapons do not already feature in the security of the region involved, that all states concerned are prepared to participate on the basis of agreements freely entered into and in keeping with internationally recognised principles, and that the balance of security is maintained. Britain was the first nuclear-weapon state to ratify the two additional protocols to the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zones in Latin America. Britain has announced that it is not in its interests to become a party to the three additional protocols to the 1985 Treaty of Rarotonga, which establishes a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific. However, the Government has made it clear that Britain has no intention of testing, manufacturing or basing nuclear weapons in the area. Chemical and Biological Weapons Britain is committed to achieving a comprehensive and verifiable world-wide ban on chemical weapons, having abandoned its own chemical warfare capability in the late 1950s. Britain tabled a draft treaty in 1976 and in more recent years has presented a number of major papers to the Conference on Disarmament on compliance and verification of a convention banning chemical weapons and on the organisation that would be needed to implement the convention's provisions. As a result of a British initiative, biological weapons are the subject of the 1972 Convention on Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stock-piling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. A review conference which took place in September 1986 reaffirmed the value of the Convention and adopted measures which would involve the exchange of information (the arrangements for which were finalised at a meeting of experts in Geneva in 1987) aimed at increasing confidence between the parties and thereby strengthening the authority of the Convention. Conventional Weapons Conventional weapons are by far the largest component of national armouries. In the Vienna negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR), Britain, together with its NATO allies, is working for an agreement with the Warsaw Pact participants which would contribute to a more stable relationship and strengthen peace and security in Europe. This would require an approximate parity between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in Central Europe where the Warsaw Pact forces far outnumber those of NATO. Progress in the talks has been slow, mainly because of a long-standing disagreement over the size of Eastern forces in the reduction area. In an attempt to break the deadlock, the West tabled new proposals in December 1985 which, based on ideas put forward by Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany, involve initial reductions of 5,000 US and 11,500 Soviet troops without insisting on prior agreement on force levels. Britain is also participating with its NATO partners in discussions with the Warsaw Pact in Vienna aimed at agreeing a mandate for new negotiations on increased conventional stability at lower force levels throughout the whole of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. At the United Nations Britain submitted memoranda setting out its arms control priorities at three special sessions of General Assembly on disarmament in 1978, 1982 and 1988. At the 1978 special session Britain proposed the adoption of measures that would increase the flow of objective information on military matters, including an international system for the standardised reporting of military expenditure which has since been adopted by the United Nations. Britain also contributes to the UN Disarmament Commission, a deliberative body considering issues such as naval armaments and the reduction of military budgets which are not on the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament. Britain played an active and constructive role in the preparation for the UN Conference on Disarmament and Development which took place in New York in 1987.