UK-Nuclear Arms
The Scottish Nationalist leader in the House of Commons has welcomed a new initiative launched leading British statesman for a world without nuclear weapons, while warning the UK's collaboration was adding to existing dangers.

In a parliamentary Early Day Motion, Angus Robertson urged the UK government to heed the call made by four former foreign and defence ministers this week by taking specific practical steps.

These, Robertson said, include "supporting a nuclear weapons convention, and reversing the decision on Trident replacement, in order to significantly contribute to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons."
In a joint call on Monday, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Lord Owen, Lord Hurd and Lord Robertson warned that the world is entering a dangerous new phase and said the only way to deal with the danger is to work multilaterally towards complete nuclear disarmament.

But Robertson, who is also the Scottish Nationalists' shadow foreign secretary, warned that the close UK/US co-operation on nuclear weapons programmes "significantly contributes to nuclear dangers."
UK-US nuclear collaboration involves the exchange of nuclear information, advanced technology and a range of material, including plutonium, enriched and highly enriched uranium and tritium to support weapons programmes under their Mutual Defence Agreement.

Despite legal opinion that the cooperation, which includes on warhead, delivery system and platform, arguably contravenes the Non- Proliferation Treaty, both the US and UK governments extended the Mutual Defence Agreement for a further 10 year in 2004.