HC Deb 21 March 1967 vol 743 cc1440-1
Q6. Mr. Colin Jackson

asked the Prime Minister whether, in the interests of a wider European understanding following his visit to Moscow, he will consider visiting the capitals of other Eastern European countries.

The Prime Minister

Our many contacts, Ministerial and otherwise, with the countries of Eastern Europe show the great importance we attach to our relations with them, but I have no present plans for visiting them myself.

Mr. Jackson

Would my right hon. Friend, while not having any present plans, bear this visit very much in mind because, having been twice or three times to Moscow and several times to Western Europe, surely his own support for a wider European concept would be encouraged by such a visit?

The Prime Minister

Since October, 1964, there have been a large number of Ministerial visits at all levels to and from Eastern Europe, including visits for official talks by eight senior Ministers from Jugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, and visits by three Cabinet Ministers, including the then Foreign Secretary, and four Ministers of State to Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. I think that my hon. Friend can feel that in the matter of visits both ways, Eastern European countries other than Moscow have been very well regarded in the arrangements that have been made.

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