This is fairly encouraging, but still suggests that a great deal of process and negotiation could stand in the way of a nuclear weapons convention. The December ministerial meetings do not live up to this proposal. We would like to stress that nuclear disarmament and arms control are not the same. Nuclear disarmament means progress towards a world in which there are no nuclear weapons. It means totally rejecting them, together with nuclear deterrence doctrine.
Arms control means containing nuclear weapons.
While arms control measures are essential steps along the way to disarmament and are therefore to be welcomed, they are not enough. NATO statements refer mainly to arms control. The UK Strategic Defence Review contains much to commend it in such areas as transparency, control of fissile materials and reductions in Trident warheads and we welcome the UK's support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. However, these are still arms control measures. They are perfectly compatible with retaining nuclear deterrence indefinitely under a leaner and more sophisticated guise.