§ Q3. Mr. Blakerasked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement about the results of the recent meeting of Heads of State of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.
§ The Prime MinisterI would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Salford, East (Mr. Allaun) on 27th June.—[Vol. 875, c. 515.]
§ Mr. BlakerWill the Prime Minister find some means of giving greater publicity to the Atlantic Declaration which he and his colleagues signed on that occasion and which paid tribute to the effectiveness of our own nuclear deterrent, describing it as capable of playing a deterrent rôle of its own, and which also said that the determination of the member countries of the EEC to proceed towards greater unity would contribute to the common defence?
§ The Prime MinisterOn the nuclear question, we are neither overstating nor understating the true position, which has been frequently debated in the House. There was some discussion on the drafting of the declaration in Ottawa, and on the question of Europe it was made clear that the declaration did not mean that Her Majesty's Government were accepting the humiliating terms that right hon. and hon. Gentlemen on the Opposition benches had accepted.
§ Mr. StonehouseIn view of the deterioration of the situation in Cyprus, what action does the Prime Minister intend to take within NATO—or elsewhere—to avoid the outbreak of hostilities between two member States of NATO, namely Greece and Turkey?
§ The Prime MinisterMy right hon. Friend has draw attention to the anxious aspect of what has happened in Cyprus in the last 24 hours. I am not sure that the right forum for dealing with these matters—including our own duties as one of the guarantors of the 1960 treaty establishing Cyprus—is NATO, but my right hon. Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary hopes, with permission, to make a statement after Question Time.