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U.N. says U.K. nuke plans would violate NPT

The U.K.'s decision to boost its nuclear warhead stockpile would breach the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a U.N. spokesperson said.

London's Science Museum exhibits a WE.177 nuclear weapon deployed in the United Kingdom
London's Science Museum exhibits a WE.177 nuclear weapon deployed in the United Kingdom from the 1960s to the 1990s (AN/Paul Hudson)

The United Kingdom's decision to boost its nuclear warhead stockpile would breach its obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

Dujarric told a daily press briefing that the U.K.'s plans would violate the treaty's Article VI, which commits nations to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

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