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Mr. Yasser Arafat

Mr. Latham : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the purpose of the meeting between Her Majesty's ambassador in Tunis and Mr. Yasser Arafat, on 26 January, and whether the ambassador gave any recognition in the meeting to Mr. Arafat's claimed capacity as President of the state of Palestine.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : We maintain a dialogue with the PLO on the middle east peace process at official level. Her Majesty's ambassador at Tunis has had a number of meetings with Mr. Arafat in this context. The latest of these was on 25 January. The United Kingdom does not recognise the so- called state of Palestine and therefore the question of recognising its "President" does not arise.

Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty

Mr. Cryer : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those states which (a) have signed and ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, (b) have acceded to the treaty but not yet completed a full safeguards agreement, pursuant to article III of the treaty, (c) have signed and ratified the treaty but are known to have breached any article of the treaty through non-compliance and (d) have indicated an intention to sign the treaty but have not yet done so.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : (a) (i) The Following countries have signed and ratified the NPT.

United Kingdom

Russian Federation

United States of America

Afghanistan

Austria

Australasia

Barbados

Belgium

Benin

Bolivia

Botswana

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Cameroon

Canada

Chad

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cyprus

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

Dominican Republic

Equador

Egypt

El Salvador

Ethiopia

Finland

Gambia

Germany

Ghana

Greece

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Hungary

Iceland

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Italy

Jamaica

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Column 197

Japan

Jordan

Kenya

Republic of Korea

Kuwait

Laos

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Luxembourg

Madagascar

Malaysia

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Mauritius

Mexico

Mongolia

Morocco

Nepal

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Nigeria

Norway

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Ivory Coast

Romania

San Marino

Senegal

Singapore

Somalia

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Swaziland

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Poland

Taiwan

Togo

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

Uruguay

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Yugoslavia

Zaire

(ii) the following countries have either acceded or succeeded to the NPT :

Albania

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Belize

Bhutan

Brunei

Burundi

Cambodia

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Congo

Dominica

Equatorial Guinea

Estonia

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Holy See

Kiribati

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

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