Falkland Islands: UK denies sending nuclear-armed submarine to South Atlantic

27 Mar 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9169034/Falkland-Islands-UK-denies-sending-nuclear-armed-submarine-to-South-Atlantic.html

Nick Clegg rubbished claims by the South American country that Trident nuclear missiles were being carried on board a Royal Navy submarine deployed to the region.

The Deputy Prime Minister dismissed the ''baseless insinuations'' in a clash with Hector Timerman, the Argentine foreign minister, at the international Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea.

The latest row between the country's erupted as British officials braced for intensifying diplomatic pressure from Buenos Aires in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.

Mr Timerman claimed last month that the UK had despatched a nuclear-powered but conventionally-armed Trafalgar class submarine to the region.

The Ministry of Defence refused to confirm or deny the deployment at the time.

But Mr Timerman told the United Nations that Britain had in fact sent a nuclear-armed Vanguard class submarine in violation of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which guarantees Latin America as a nuclear weapons-free zone.

In the face of denials issued through diplomats, Mr Timerman insisted that a Vanguard-class submarine, which carries Trident nuclear missiles, was operating in the region.

He produced maps and photographs to back up his claims, stating that the nuclear submarine posed a threat to regional security.

"Argentina has information that within the framework of the recent British deployment in the Malvinas Islands they sent a nuclear submarine ... to transport nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic," Mr Timerman told a press conference in New York.

"Thus far the UK refuses to say whether it is true or not. Are there nuclear weapons or are there not?

"The information Argentina has is that there are these nuclear weapons.

Despite British denials, officials said Mr Timerman had repeated the allegation at Tuesday's meeting in Seoul.

He had referred to an ''extra-regional power'' which had deployed a submarine ''capable of carrying nuclear weapons'' in the South Atlantic.

But Mr Clegg, who is leading the British delegation at the summit, strongly rejected the claim.

''These are unfounded, baseless insinuations,'' he said.

''As I'm sure our colleague from Argentina knows, the United Kingdom ratified the protocols to the treaty in 1969 ... which guarantees a nuclear weapons-free zone covering Latin America and the Caribbean.

''We have respected those obligations since 1969 and we will continue to do so.''  

In comments released by Downing Street, Britain's ambassador to the UN Sir Mark Lyall Grant said: "On the nuclear issue, nothing has changed with regards to the British defence posture in the region.

"Since 1982, we have had to increase our defence posture. We do not discuss the whereabouts of nuclear weapons around the world.

"We are not looking to start a war of words. We will defend our position and we will defend it robustly and we have no intention of increasing our rhetoric on this matter."

A spokesman for the Argentine foreign minister has not commented on Mr Clegg's comments.