HC Deb 09 March 1976 vol 907 cc227-8
2. Mr. Goodhart

asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will make a statement about recent progress towards arms standardisation in NATO.

Mr. Mason

Action is in progress on a number of specific projects, and further possibilities are under examination with our allies. Two important recent developments have been established of a European Programme Group directed towards increasing equipment collaboration and the setting up of a NATO Ad Hoc Committee on Equipment Interoperability.

Mr. Goodhart

What steps has the Secretary of State taken since the beginning of the year to implement the memorandum of understanding which he signed with the American Defence Secretary on the two-way street on arms procurement within the NATO alliance?

Mr. Mason

Exchanges have already taken place between the Americans and ourselves to set up machinery to monitor progress. As far as we are concerned—as distinct from our European allies—because we wanted to establish traffic on the two-way street as quickly as possible we submitted 50 different pieces of equipment which we thought would be attractive to the Americans.

Mr. Stonehouse

Will my right hon. Friend resist moves towards arms standardisation if it means complete dependence on the United States for the provision of arms? Will he work for commensurate procurement from the United Kingdom in future?

Mr. Mason

I am resisting as much as possible dependence upon procuring equipment from overseas unless it is in a collaborative project or under the memorandum of understanding with the Americans. At present, 75 per cent. of our forces' equipment is bought from Great Britain and 10 per cent. from foreign sources, and 15 per cent. is collaborative projects.

Mr. Pattie

When does the right hon. Gentleman expect some response from the United States on the 50 pieces of equipment to which he referred?

Mr. Mason

It is too early to say. As I indicated to a previous questioner, we are setting up monitoring machinery so that once the equipment gets under way for the Americans and ourselves, we can ensure that we get a proper offset in any agreement on equipment to be sold to the Americans.