Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what response he plans to make to the statement of the President of Argentina on 2 April that the UK was keeping NATO's most powerful armed bases in the Falklands and that this included a nuclear attack submarine.
Answered by Lord Swire
The British Ambassador in Buenos Aires has conveyed our disappointment to the Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister that the President of Argentina once again repeated her unfounded claims about the UK military presence in the South Atlantic on the very anniversary of Argentina's illegal invasion of the Falkland Islands which tragically led to so many deaths on both sides. Claims that the Falklands is a “military nuclear base for NATO in the South Atlantic”, or represents a military threat to the region are obviously untrue: The UK's military presence on the Falkland Islands is purely defensive in nature and the number of UK forces has declined to the minimum necessary to defend the Islands.
With regard to nuclear weapons, the UK's position is clear. The United Kingdom ratified the protocols to the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone covering Latin America and the Caribbean (the Treaty of Tlatelolco) in 1969, and it fully respects these obligations. The UK position on its deterrent is unambiguous and well known: the UK will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states parties to, and in compliance with, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.