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Foreign Secretary David Miliband today said a cut in Britain's Trident nuclear submarine fleet could ease nuclear tensions around the world.
He spoke out after the Prime Minister announced in New York that he is prepared to reduce the missile-carrying submarine fleet from four vessels to three.
There were hints that Mr Brown might be willing to go further and delay the replacement of Trident — said to cost between £20 billion and £90 billion — if other powers reached a deal towards multilateral disarmament.
Mr Miliband was in talks today with counterparts from France, Germany, the US, Russia and China aimed at persuading Iran to end its attempts to construct nuclear weapons.
“Defence and nuclear defence especially is long-term questions not short-term financial issues,” he said. “And the heart of the issue is the ability of the world to turn from the escalation of nuclear tension to the decline of tensions.”
Mr Brown will put the future of Trident on the table at a UN Security Council meeting tomorrow, saying he hopes to boost global efforts to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. His move was welcomed as “serious and positive” by CND and was clearly timed to cheer up Labour activists before next week's party conference.
Former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen warned that a cut to three submarines could create gaps in the deterrent. “It leaves us spending a lot of money that cannot guarantee having one ship at sea at all times,” he wrote in the Mirror.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “I really do welcome that finally the dam has burst on this.”
Reader views (13)
C. Nichol, London - tell that to the Iranian leader. Tell that to the North Korean leader. Tell that to the fundamentalist leaders who would give the eye teeth (and everything else) of their followers to get their hands on Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The list is increasing, not getting smaller.
Not much point in going on, I know. You see the Utopian dream, not the bandit infested road that has to be travelled to get there.
- Rogan, Irving, 24/09/2009 03:34
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Eliminating all defense, army, will really ease tensions.
Follow the Chamberlain approach: just give in.
Submitting to Muslim rule would do the same - will be very tension free.
- Trunk, US, 23/09/2009 17:13
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Nukes are no use in the 'war on terror' because you are not fighting a nation as a whole - just individuals.
- D, London, 23/09/2009 16:50
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The nuclear "deterrent" doesn't work. It didn't stop the IRA attacking the UK with weapons and explosives originating from Libya, the communist bloc and the USA. It didn't stop 7/7. It didn't deter attacks on the British army in Iraq, it isn't deterring the Taliban in Afghanistan right now and its influence on Iran and North Korea is not having the desired effect.
Sending submarines around the world with the potential to incinerate entire cities and their civilian populations isn't deterrence - it is a form of terrorism. If other EU nations - with the exception of France and the UK - can live without this ability to commit mass murder and suicide at the same time, why can't we.
Get rid of the Trident fleet and the mid 20th century military stupidity that goes with it. The savings can be used to either cut our taxes or be spent on something useful.
- C. Nichol, London, 23/09/2009 15:00
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Anyone who cuts our defences at this time should be charge with treason. It seems unbelievable that while Iran, North Korea and other rogue states are striving to build or perfect their nuclear weapons, Clown Brown wants to reduce ours. And to those who think nukes should be abolished - if the USA and Russia didn't have them during the Cuban crisis, we in Britain would probably be speaking Russian now. Gordon, you are not often right, but you are wrong again.
- Saxon, Cowes, 23/09/2009 14:12
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Are Brown/Milliband so stupid, that they think by saying they are prepared to take the moral high ground, and, cut the nuclear marine fleet, we will think better of them?
When, everyone in this country, and, around the world knows that it is because we are skint, and, can't afford to look at the menu, let alone sit at the top table! Why are our weedy mealy mouthed politicians so utterly pathetic even when they make the right decisions?
- Kevin Sullivan, Roehampton, London., 23/09/2009 13:36
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Why don't they send the Trident submarines to Afghanistan? I believe they are bullet proof, whereas the snatch Landrovers are not.
- Michael, Sydney Australia, 23/09/2009 12:48
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This guy sold our gold off cheap, he and Blair have instigated the break up of our beloved Great Britain the country has no self respect, parliament has become a thieves paradise, the UK is in financial meltdown, and now he is going to destroy the Navy, we are a island nation, we need a powerful defence force, he seems hellbent on destroying the UK, he, and the rest of his cronies should be arrested and charged with treason.
- David Crocket, Bradford, UK, 23/09/2009 11:31
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Cut in Trident submarine fleet ‘would ease tensions’. Only with the Treasury. That's the real reason for it.
So is this to be Labour's way of enacting spending cuts? By pretending they are for any reason other than the actual one?
- Tony, Wellingborough, 23/09/2009 10:55
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Ironic really as the one thing Gordon needs is a rocket up the a***.
- Bob, Cheam, 23/09/2009 09:39
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This is all pretty academic anyway. If it came to it and a decision to push the button had to be made, Broon would disappear rather than face responsibility.
I suspect the Libyan navy will be receiving a nice new sub soon.....
- Edgar, London, 23/09/2009 09:17
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This is all to do with Labour cuts and nothing to do with principled disarmament.
- How Are We Going To Spin This One?, norf essex, 23/09/2009 08:40
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Just a trick to make himself look good at the Party conference next week.
Gordon Brown..more like Gordon Bennet !
- Andrew, Ely UK, 23/09/2009 08:19
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