Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation

Senior Parliamentarians Urge UK Leadership on Multilateral Disarmament

29 October 2009, London – Today in Westminster a top level group of former Ministers and Chiefs of defence and senior parliamentarians will launch a cross party effort to promote British leadership of multilateral disarmament.

All the group’s members share the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and have come together at this critical time in international diplomacy to help achieve that end. This unique group will be launched formally in parliament before an international gathering attended by several Ambassadors, a former UN Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs, and senior figures from the field of nuclear diplomacy.

According to the group’s convener, former Defence Secretary Des Browne MP:

“There appears to be a growing consensus that a world without nuclear weapons is the sort of world we want to live in. That thinking has coalesced around President Obama’s Prague speech but has its roots in the Shultz, Perry, Nunn and Kissinger initiative and Margaret Beckett’s speech to the Carnegie Endowment.

The ambitions of those of us who are now joining together to add energy to this agenda is to manage down the salience of nuclear weapons to defence and, at the same time, to manage down the number of nuclear weapons.

 I believe that changing the military strategies of countries who possess nuclear weapons and the defensive alliances that they are involved in, is a necessary precursor to the change and not a consequence of it. However, we must understand that it is necessary to persuade countries that they can do that and at the same time remain secure. This is at the top of our agenda.”

All the members of this group believe in a world free from nuclear weapons but agree that this can only be achieved incrementally.

Representing a major scaling up of cross-party UK political presence on these topics, the Top Level Group will promote a better quality of parliamentary debate through a series of upcoming debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meetings with individuals key to making policy decisions and coordinating parliamentary activities with their counterparts across Europe. 

Such debates, planned public outreach, and a coordinated presence at key meetings and conferences over the coming months will build upon the stated goals of the UK government. It will also provide an authoritative European voice to back up the position of US President Barack Obama. 

The group has also tasked itself with ensuring that politicians in the US, of all political persuasions, are in no doubt of their allies’ positions on extended deterrence, tactical nuclear weapons, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. 

At a time when the new German government is promoting the removal of US nuclear weapons from Europe, these voices increasingly will be influential.

Furthermore the group provides an opportunity to reinforce the view that multilateral nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation is a critical global issue. Particularly when seen in the context of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. It will provide a unique momentum to both domestic and international advocacy, building upon high-level statements from former officials and ministers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Norway.

TLG Member and Chair of the Defence Select Committee, James Arbuthnot MP stressed the timeliness of the group’s efforts:

“Nuclear proliferation is the greatest risk we face.  We have vastly dangerous technology in a world which is politically less stable than it was.  We simply must give fresh impetus to a drive to reduce that risk by ensuring that proliferation is first slowed and then reversed.”

The group believes that in order for the multilateral nuclear disarmament agenda to be credible and achievable, the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference has to be a success, particularly after the perceived failure of the 2005 NPT Review Conference.

According to TLG member Sir Menzies Campbell MP: “This is a debate in which Britain needs to play a part. The accumulated experience of our group will inform and direct that debate.”

The group has also launched a new website that will be a source of information on the group’s activities. This can be found on www.toplevelgroup.org

ENDS



The membership of the group is as follows:

1. The Rt Hon Michael Ancram, QC DL MP (Former Shadow Foreign Secretary 2001-2005, Former Shadow Defence Secretary 2005)
   
   
2. The Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP (Present Chair of the Defence Select Committee in Parliament since 2005)
   
   
3. The Rt  Hon Margaret Beckett MP (Former Foreign Secretary 2006-07)
   
   
4. Admiral the Lord Boyce GCB OBE DL (Former Chief of the Defence Staff 2001-03)
   
   
5. The Rt Hon Des Browne MP (Former Defence Secretary 2006-08) (convener of group)
   
   
6. The Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell MP, CBE QC MP (Former Leader Liberal Democrat Party, Former Shadow Foreign Secretary 2001-06)
   
   
7. Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP (Former Home Secretary 2004-06)
   
   
8. The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB LVO OBE (Former Chief of the Defence Staff 1997-2001)
   
   
9. Rt Hon the Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE (Former Foreign Secretary 1989-1995)
   
   
10. The Rt Hon Adam Ingram MP (Former MOD Minister of State (Armed Forces) 2001-07)
    
    
11. Rt Hon the Lord King of Bridgwater (Former Defence Secretary 1989-92)
    
    
12. The Rt Hon Dr. John Reid MP (Former Defence Secretary 2005-06)
    
    
13. The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, KCMG MP (Former Defence Secretary 1992 -95, Former Foreign Secretary 1995-97)
    
    
14. Rt Hon the Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG Hon FRSE (Former Defence Secretary 1997-1999, Former Secretary General of NATO 1999-2003)
    
    
15. Rt Hon the Baroness Williams of Crosby (Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Director for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (from 2002))
    
    
    
    For further information please contact Shata Shetty by email on
    shettys@parliament.uk. Please visit the website at: www.toplevelgroup.org