Gorbachev blasts UK's N-deterrent
Friday, March 9, 2007
FORMER Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev hit out at the British government's "astonishing" intention to replace its ageing nuclear deterrent in a letter to the Times newspaper yesterday.
Gorbachev wrote that a decision to replace the Trident missile would "be in contradiction to the spirit of the agreements that helped to end the Cold War".
And he called on Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to postpone a decision on the future of Britain's nuclear arsenal at least until 2010, when the next review conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty takes place.
"The UK government's rush to deploy nuclear missiles whose service life would extend until 2050 is, to say the least, astonishing," the former Soviet Union president wrote.
"There is a real danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons."
Blair unveiled plans in December to modernise Britain's nuclear arsenal at a cost of up to £20 billion.
Lawmakers are set to vote on the proposals on Wednesday and Blair is likely to face opposition to the plan from leftwingers within his Labour Party, but is unlikely to be defeated in parliament.
The current deterrent consists of four Trident-bearing submarines, one of which is always on patrol.
Gorbachev said the government's proposals came "in an alarming setting" because the process of reducing the United States' and Russia's nuclear arms has stalled.
When he was president, Britain supported US-Soviet accords on cuts in certain types of weapons and said it too would reduce weapons, but it has not mentioned this promise during the Trident debate, he added.
The former president described a joint statement from him and former US president Ronald Reagan in 1985 that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought" as "a declaration of the need to rid humankind of nuclear weapons".
"Today it has an even greater urgency," Gorbachev wrote.
"In a world of new threats and challenges, nuclear weapons do not solve real security problems; indeed, reliance on them is becoming increasingly dangerous".
AFP
Gorbachev wrote that a decision to replace the Trident missile would "be in contradiction to the spirit of the agreements that helped to end the Cold War".
And he called on Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to postpone a decision on the future of Britain's nuclear arsenal at least until 2010, when the next review conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty takes place.
"The UK government's rush to deploy nuclear missiles whose service life would extend until 2050 is, to say the least, astonishing," the former Soviet Union president wrote.
"There is a real danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons."
Blair unveiled plans in December to modernise Britain's nuclear arsenal at a cost of up to £20 billion.
Lawmakers are set to vote on the proposals on Wednesday and Blair is likely to face opposition to the plan from leftwingers within his Labour Party, but is unlikely to be defeated in parliament.
The current deterrent consists of four Trident-bearing submarines, one of which is always on patrol.
Gorbachev said the government's proposals came "in an alarming setting" because the process of reducing the United States' and Russia's nuclear arms has stalled.
When he was president, Britain supported US-Soviet accords on cuts in certain types of weapons and said it too would reduce weapons, but it has not mentioned this promise during the Trident debate, he added.
The former president described a joint statement from him and former US president Ronald Reagan in 1985 that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought" as "a declaration of the need to rid humankind of nuclear weapons".
"Today it has an even greater urgency," Gorbachev wrote.
"In a world of new threats and challenges, nuclear weapons do not solve real security problems; indeed, reliance on them is becoming increasingly dangerous".
AFP
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