Military Manoeuvres (Notification) (Hansard, 15 June 1976)

§ 13. Mr. Arnold
asked the Secretary of State for Defence what information has been given to NATO military authorities by the Warsaw Pact Powers and vice versa over the past year in connection with the notification of military manoeuvres in terms of the Helsinki Agreement.

§ Mr. William Rodgers
Since the signing of the Helsinki Final Act on 1st August 1975, the NATO countries have notified eight manoeuvres and the Warsaw Pact countries have notified three manoeuvres, including two by the Soviet Union.

§ Mr. Arnold
Does the Minister of State agree that while there has been some progress in this important but difficult area, there must nevertheless be continuing concern at the rapid expansion of the Soviet armed forces? What can be done to close the rapidly expanding gap between what is available to the Warsaw Pact Powers, in the way of men and material, and what is available to us?

§ Mr. Rodgers
I agree absolutely with what the hon. Gentleman said about progress. We should be satisfied that, whatever shortcomings there may have been in the Helsinki Agreement, this part of it seems to be working reasonably well. As to the second part of the question, the answer lies in the continuing preparedness of NATO and in the progress of the MBFR talks in Vienna.

§ Mr. Macfarquhar
I welcome the exchanges that have taken place in this regard, but will my right hon. Friend confirm that they did not involve the exchange of any real secrets, or information that could not have been obtained by any other means? His Department may be far more concerned about the possible one-way leakage of genuine secrets from NATO if Italian Communists get into the Italian Government. Will he confirm that his Department is engaged in consultations with other NATO partners on this matter?

§ Mr. Rodgers
My hon. Friend has asked a lot of perhaps loosely related questions. I agree that the Helsinki Agreement does not involve an exchange of what might be termed secrets, and we would not expect that to be the case. Nevertheless, it is a useful way of monitoring the activities of the Warsaw Pact and, in return, of NATO.
On the second question, we should await the decision of the Italian people in the Italian election before deciding how this may effect the Italian stance in NATO.