The UK Foreign Affairs Committee published a rather interesting report on UK's role in non-proliferation. There are several parts worth reading. Among other things, the report calls for greater transparancy with regard to Israel's nuclear arsenal and stresses that the Israeli nuclear capability undermines NPT and other non-proliferation efforts. The report also recommends an active role for the UK in strengthening the Test Ban Treaty, the Land-mine treaty; support for a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, strengthening of the IAEA, and reconfirms that the UK government is to take serious its NPT responsibilities - i.e. to nuclear disarm the UK.
Disappointing is that the report cncludes that the popular and international resistance to the nuclear upgrade of UK Trident submarines merely merits "better explanation to the public about why....".
An important signal is the critical view of the Committee on Missile Defence in general and the US includion of the bases Fylingdales and Menwith Hill in the US Missile Defence project:
"We are not convinced that, as they are currently envisaged and under current circumstances, the United States' planned ballistic missile defence (BMD) deployments in the Czech Republic and Poland represent a net gain for European security. We conclude that if the deployments are carried out in the face of opposition from Russia, this could be highly detrimental to NATO's overall security interests. We reaffirm our 2007 recommendation that BMD in Europe should be developed, if at all, as a joint system between the US, NATO and Russia. Given the Government's stated commitment to a rules-based international system, we further conclude that its early agreement to the inclusion of RAF Fylingdales and Menwith Hill in the US BMD system was regrettable, given that the United States' development of its system involved its abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. [...] We further conclude that the uncertainty surrounding prospects for the US European BMD system has made a Parliamentary debate on this issue all the more necessary, and we recommend that the Government should schedule one before the end of this Parliament." (Conclusions and recommendtions no. 38, page 13 & Paragraph 241)
While the report concludes that the inclusion of Fylingdales and Menwith Hill in the Missile Defence project is "regrettable" and a clear violation of the NPT, it is disturbing to see that the committee fails to follow up this conclusion with the only logical recommendation: To close the Missile Defence operations at the two bases.