HC Deb 04 November 1965 vol 718 cc1229-30
Q4. Mr. Marten

asked the Prime Minister when he will visit Moscow; and when Mr. Kosygin will visit Great Britain.

Q7. Sir C. Osborne

asked the Prime Minister in view of the importance of maintaining good Anglo-Soviet relations, when he proposes to visit Moscow; and if he will make a statement.

The Prime Minister

I have been in touch with Mr. Kosygin. We agree that an exchange would be useful at the right time, but dates for the visits have not yet been arranged.

Mr. Marten

While everybody hopes that a meeting will take place as soon as practicable, would the right hon. Gentleman say what, in fact, has been the delay in having the meeting since he came to power?

The Prime Minister

As I made clear in the foregin affairs debate in July, the fact of the Vietnam fighting—as I said then and as I have said on other occasions—has been a cloud on international relations. Both of us feel that we want to be quite clear that there is a good prospect of making progress to relieving East-West tension. This problem is the one that stands in the way, but we are having useful exchanges.

Sir C. Osborne

Is there not a real danger that the Prime Minister is losing influence in Moscow and, possibly, in Peking by being too closely associated with Washington—[Interruption.]—and not going to see his fellow Socialists in Moscow?

The Prime Minister

I am interested in the development of a new axis on this subject this afternoon. To answer the hon. Gentleman's question, I think that our position has always been understood; that this country is prepared to take any initiative to relieve East-West tension and to improve East-West relations, but always from a position which has been our standpoint—four-square within the Western Alliance. The Russians understand this clearly now.

Mr. Michael Foot

Would my right hon. Friend say whether the very welcome emphasis which Her Majesty's Government have laid on the priority of securing a non-dissemination agreement about nuclear weapons—at least, welcome on this side of the House—has assisted in securing an exchange of visits with the Soviet Government, which my right hon. Friend proposed soon after the Labour Party came to power?

The Prime Minister

Not yet, but certainly this also has been a problem which the Soviet Government have been facing in addition to the Vietnam situation. I am sure that the House will agree that it is obvious that these visits cannot take place every week but that they should take place when they are likely to be most fruitful.

Mr. Heath

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the contrast between what he is now telling the House and what he said after his visit to Moscow in July, 1963, when he said that he had put forward proposals for regular, routine visits at frequent intervals and that this had been warmly welcomed by the Russians, regardless of the international situation? What has brought about this change of view?

The Prime Minister

It was welcomed at that time by the Soviet Government. What has brought about the change of view is something of which I should have thought the right hon. Gentleman would have been well aware—the development of the war in Vietnam, which was hardly the responsibility of Her Majesty's Government or, if I may say so, of the Soviet Government. This is the view which they take, and I think there is something in it.