Lord CHELWOODasked Her Majesty's Government:
What were the scale and character of the recent Warsaw Bloc military manoeuvres; whether these required the Soviet Government to give the NATO countries advance information 766WA under the Helsinki Agreement; whether Her Majesty's Government were informed; and if not what protest has been made.
§ The PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE, FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (Lord Goronwy-Roberts)Warsaw Pact countries both individually and collectively hold frequent military manoeuvres and have continued to do so since the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. They have not notified any of these manoeuvres. But so far as we know none of them involved over 25,000 troops. The Final Act of the CSCE only requires notification of manoeuvres involving more than 25,000 troops, though it gives participating States discretion to notify smaller scale manoeuvres. The question of protest does not therefore arise.
We naturally hope that all the CSCE participants will be as forthcoming as possible in their notification of manoeuvres. NATO countries have already set a good standard in this respect.