SNP Group reaffirm opposition to NATO

The Scottish National Party has for many years argued that an independent Scotland should not be part of NATO because NATO was a nuclear alliance. Recently some people in the Party have suggested that this position should be changed to one which supported membership of NATO while opposing the presence of nuclear weapons in Scotland. A small group was convened by Roseanna Cunninghame MSP to look at this issue. An article in the Herald says that this group has decided that the existing policy should be retained. It quotes the report from the group as:

"reiterating the party's view that our collective security is best served through non-nuclear co-operation within the EU" and that because NATO was a nuclear alliance - "we will negotiate withdrawal from NATO upon independence".

It is expected that these proposals will be discussed at a National Assembly meeting later in March and then at an SNP council meeting in June. They could also be raised at the party's national conference in Inverness in September. A resolution on NATO membership had been submitted to the 2001 annual conference but the matter was deferred to the Roseanna Cunninghame's group.