Stockholm Conference on the Environment

HC Deb 03 July 1972 vol 840 cc12-3

8. Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will have talks with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in the light of the Stockholm Conference on the Environment, about Soviet participation in United Nations work on the environment.

Mr. Anthony Royle

We have no plans for special talks of this kind. The recommendations of the Stockholm Conference will be forwarded to the United Nations General Assembly where the USSR will if it wishes have the opportunity of making its views on participation known.

Mr. Dalyell

Does that answer imply that Russia will not be welcome into world work on the environment until the resolution of the German problem?

Mr. Royle

I hope that I did not imply that. Her Majesty's Government regretted the absence of the USSR and a number of other countries from the original conference. The results of the meeting were none the less most encouraging and we hope that useful progress was made on most of the items which the Government considered important.