§ 10. Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence what decisions were reached at the recent conference of Ministers within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PymI made a statement to the House on 13 December about the decisions reached at the special meeting of the NATO Foreign and Defence Ministers on the previous day.
At their meetings on 10 and 11 December, NATO Defence Ministers had reiterated their concern at the sustained 1421 growth in the military capabilities of the Warsaw Pact. They concluded that this build-up, coupled with the Soviet Union's efforts to expand its influence worldwide, presented a growing challenge to the security of the West and they affirmed their determination to maintain the deterrent capability of the Alliance. I stressed that Britain would play its full part in strengthening NATO's collective defence.
The texts of the final communiqués of all these meetings have been placed in the Library.
§ Mr. RossI am grateful for that statement. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, I support the statement that he made earlier about the safety of cruise missiles. What progress is being made in NATO on the urgent need to standardise our most effective equipment in the Western world?
§ Mr. PymWe are making the most rapid progress that we can, though it is too slow for me. There is clearly a need for interoperability of weapons and when a need has been identified and there is the prospect of bringing a new weapon into use, we begin by discussing with our allies whether we can share the development of a project. It is a lengthy process and it is not going quickly enough, but we are giving it every possible support.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonWhat positive steps could NATO undertake in light of the Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, bearing in mind the present level of NATO defence forces? What could we do to defend our interests in that area of the world, which are so vital to the future progress and prosperity of Europe?
§ Mr. PymI have no doubt that those matters are being discussed at this moment by Ministers at the North Atlantic Council. There is no question but that events in South-West Asia during the recess give sharp expression to the threats represented to the West through trade routes and interruptions of our essential needs. We in Britain are acutely conscious, because of our history and geography, of the needs that will have to be met in that part of the world. We are in constant touch with our NATO allies and that is the reason why the Foreign Secretary has made a personal visit to those 1422 countries, as part of the assessment that we are making.
§ Mr. CryerWill the right hon. Gentleman confirm that the installation of cruise missiles in this country could lead to a situation in which the Americans may decide to use those missiles to meet a Russion adventure, for example in Afghanistan, and that we could therefore be dragged willy nilly into a nuclear conflict? Can he explain how freedom and democracy are preserved when other fingers press nuclear buttons and draw people, whether they like it or not, into a radioactive cinder heap? Is that the preservation of freedom, democracy and choice?
§ Mr. PymThe hon. Gentleman knows very well that it is the purpose of those weapons to preserve peace and to deter. To that extent, they have succeeded, but we are now acutely aware of a fact that was not so clear before Christmas, namely that the threat of which we have spoken exists and is real and that if we lower our guard we may be threatened in a way that we would regret.
The point of those weapons and the modernisation of our theatre nuclear forces is to ensure that we have the capability to deter. Had we not taken that decision we could have been accused of not having enough retaliatory capability to put into the minds of potential aggressors that if they go too far they may have a return that they would find totally unacceptable. That is the point of the deterrent strategy.