Member

Noble Lords are doubtless now very familiar with the treaty of Pelindaba, even though they were not—even the Government, apparently, were not when they first entered into this agreement. The treaty refuses the right to any signatory to resile from any part of that treaty subsequently. You could resile from the whole of it, but you cannot resile from part of it. So the only way the Mauritius could not extend the Pelindaba treaty to Diego Garcia, as far as I understand it, is if it resiles from the Pelindaba treaty. We need to know: are we going to require it to do so? Do the Americans want to require it to do so? Are the Americans happy that the treaty should apply but be regularly broken?