Arms Control (Hansard, 1 July 1987)

§ 5. Mr. Forman
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's position on arms control negotiations.

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. David Mellor)
There has been significant progress in recent weeks in the United States/Soviet negotiations on intermediate range nuclear missiles. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer my right hon. and learned Friend has just given about developments at Reykjavik.
On conventional weapons, informal contacts between NATO and Warsaw pact representatives have been under way in Vienna since mid-February on the terms of reference for new talks on conventional stability covering the Atlantic to the Urals. Steady progress is being made.

§ Mr. Forman
I welcome the progress in the INF negotiations, but can my hon. and learned Friend confirm that the Government's view is that agreement should be concluded if possible by the end of this year? In the interests of meeting such a timetable, do the Government believe that it would be unwise to attach too many conditions to the free standing and balanced INF agreement by attaching conditions to conventional or chemical weaponry, important though it is to make progress on those issues separately?

§ Mr. Mellor
Plainly, it is important that a proper balanced view be taken on all these matters. I hope, as the whole House will hope, that proper speed is made in all these negotiations, but in no sense do I think that we should be tied to any arbitrary timetable.

§ Mrs. Clwyd
Why are the Government continuing to support P1A in West Germany when it is both militarily useless and politically obstructive to a historic breakthrough in arms control agreements?

§ Mr. Mellor
The hon. Lady speaks with great assertion on matters on which one suspects she is not as expert as she claims. The reality—[Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

§ Mr. Mellor
It is interesting that—[interruption]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This is supposed to be about diplomatic exchanges.

§ Mr. Mellor
It is interesting that the hon. Lady chooses to seize upon indications that the Soviet Union introduced into the discussions very late on; indeed, only a few months ago. Before that it had been accepted that the arrangements whereby the West Germans have this rocketry and the Alliance fits the warheads stood outside these negotiations. The hon. Lady would play the British card better if she recognised that this was a spurious negotiating gambit by the Soviets and did not leap in as voice and echo to everything that Mr. Gorbachev said.

§ Mr. Soames
Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that, as there is not one shred of evidence of any change in Russian expansionist foreign policy, he should go extremely carefully in the arms control talks?

§ Mr. Mellor
That is unquestionably right.

§ Mr. Alfred Morris
Why did the Foreign Secretary try to intervene in New Zealand's arms control policy at his press conference there in May, and what is felt to have been the outcome of that?

§ Mr. Mellor
I think that the right hon. Gentleman should direct that question specifically to my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary.

§ Mr. Wilkinson
I congratulate my hon. and learned Friend on his new appointment. As an early priority, will he read the excellent article by General Bernard Rogers in Monday's international Herald Tribune, which rightly points out that our spectrum of deterrence — our graduation of deterrence — will be diminished by the elimination of intermediate nuclear force systems? Will my hon. and learned Friend always bear in mind that arms control negotiations are not an end in themselves, but that their purpose is to enchance security?

§ Mr. Mellor
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend's last point. I would add that for some time past what General Rogers has been saying has been worthy of the most serious consideration, and certainly it will always get that consideration from me.

Mr. Robertson
It would be normal to welcome a new Minister to the Dispatch Box, but this new Minister has managed in a few seconds to make us instantly and amazingly nostalgic for his hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton), who preceded him. He at least had some expertise in these matters and would never have stooped to this sort of cheap jibe.
Let me test the hon. and learned Gentleman's instant expertise by asking him whether he can tell the House of any scientific opinion at all in the world that still supports the British Government's objections to a test ban treaty—an objection that is still based on difficulties with verification? When will the Government abandon this totally discredited objection to such a treaty, or are they going to wait yet again for the United States Congress to come to their assistance and let them off the hook?

§ Mr. Mellor
It is good to feel at home, being savaged by a dead haggis. The British Government's position on this, as on all other aspects of disarmament and defence, commands a great deal more support, both at home and abroad, than is suggested by Opposition Members, who, after their third successive election defeat, should learn a little humility on these matters.