Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Trident

Asked what the Prime Minister would say in his speech to the UN General Assembly today regarding Trident, the PMS said that people would have to wait for the speech, but the Prime Minister could be asked questions on this during his radio interview this afternoon so it was worth listening to. More generally, the Government s position on the nuclear deterrent was that we viewed it as part of the multilateral deal that the world was hoping to move forward on as we approached the global nuclear summit in Washington in March next year. Any reduction to the number of submarines would be done as part of that multilateral deal, whilst maintaining an effective independent deterrent. The Prime Minister had spoken on this subject in March. He made clear that movement would only be possible by not only asking the non-nuclear states to behave in a certain way, but by asking the nuclear states to play their part in this grand global bargain .

Asked how much money would be saved by cutting the number of submarines, the PMS said that David Miliband had answered that question this morning; this was a long-term issue, not a short-term financial issue.

Put that there were suggestions that the Prime Minister was likely to go further than just scrapping one submarine, the PMS said that people should wait for the Prime Minister s speech.

Asked if it was still the Prime Minister s view that irrespective of non-proliferation deals, Trident was the right strategic weapon system for the current security threat, the PMS said that there was no change to our position on Trident and its impact on national security.

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