Mr Major’s Comments at the Signing Ceremony of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – 5 December 1994

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments at the signing ceremony of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, held in Budapest on Monday 5th December 1994.

PRIME MINISTER:

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… and I believe this will send a further positive signal about the strong commitment of these countries to European and global security and stability but these decisions of course do more than that: they open the doors for the entry into force of START 1 and the ratification of START 2 and both those treaties are significant milestones in nuclear disarmament and we need them to be successful if we are to see the safer world that all of us hope to see in the future.

These developments illustrate the character of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is the only internationally-agreed framework for negotiations on nuclear disarmament and it is why we must all work together for the indefinite and unconditional extension of the treaty in 1995. Against this background, the United Kingdom is pleased to join the United States and the Russian Federation in extending to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine the nuclear security assurances which we have given in the past to other non-nuclear-weapon states.

I believe that it is appropriate that this ceremony should take place during the CSCE summit. By offering nuclear assurances we underline our commitment to work for the security, the peace and the prosperity of all the CSCE participating states and to do so on a continuing basis and on the basis of the principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris. I believe to say that today is an historic day is in no sense to overstate what has been achieved and what has been signed on this occasion. [Applause].