SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has co-sponsored a parliamentary motion at Westminster welcoming a new draft resolution to the UN General Assembly which aims to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
Mr Durkan said: “The UN Open-ended working group on Nuclear Disarmament concluded with the submission of a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly recently which calls for a conference to be convened in 2017 with a view to negotiating a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.
“The scale of the devastation caused by nuclear weapons, together with the disastrous consequences of radiation on human and all forms of life, make these weapons uniquely terrible and destructive.
“I welcome this proposal as a positive step towards achieving the aim of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and of a world without nuclear weapons.
“I am therefore calling on the government to participate fully in these discussions at the UN and encourage all other nations to do the same.
“I have also consistently argued that cutting spending on Trident and other prestige follies would save billions of pounds at a time when public spending here in the North and in Britain is being severely hit.
“With such savage and indiscriminate cuts, the Treasury axe should first fall on fantasy status projects like Trident.”
