HC Deb 16 January 1991 vol 183 cc845-6
11. Mr. Anthony Coombs

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what particular assistance the United Kingdom is giving to the Soviet Union to help feed its people.

Mr. Hurd

The £20 million British know-how fund for the Soviet Union was announced in November last year. Its disbursement is under review in the light of recent developments in the Baltic states on which I shall be answering a private notice question shortly.

Mr. Coombs

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the main reason why a country so vast and rich in resources as the Soviet Union cannot adequately feed its people lies in the inefficiency, inflexibility and corruption of the Communist regime—a regime which the Soviet Union now appears to want to impose by force on the Baltic republics? Does he agree that it is appropriate that all economic assistance and trade credits should be suspended forthwith until there is proof positive that the Soviet Union is prepared to act in a civilised way without the use of force against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in particular?

Mr. Hurd

It is true that food shortages in the Soviet Union are the result not of low production but of a collapsed system of distribution and that is why we thought that that was a sensible way in which we could help. It is in our interests that the Soviet Union should get on with perestroika and glasnost, but we must make it clear both as a country and as members of the Community, that we cannot be expected to help if the Soviet Union is returning to repression in the Baltic states.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

While we welcome the money made available to the know-how fund, is not £500 million in aid also going to the Soviet Union through the European Community? Would not it have been helpful therefore, if, instead of answering a private notice question asked by several hon. Members, the Foreign Secretary had given us a clear statement of the British Government's view and that of the European Foreign Minsters in their discussion in Brussels, particularly in light of what the Foreign Secretary has said? Many of us believe that in 1991 we are witnessing a repeat of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Mr. Hurd

The worry is there—the hon. Lady is quite right—but I do not think that it is a confirmed worry yet. However, I shall make our position more clear in a few minutes.

Mr. William Powell

Is my right hon. Friend aware that many people in this country are absolutely appalled by the murders that have taken place in Vilnius in the past few days and that they would find it very hard to understand if the British and other EEC Governments continued to provide economic support for the Soviet Union without a firm understanding that such behaviour will never be repeated?

Mr. Hurd

I agree that acts of repression of that kind, for which the Soviet Government must take responsibility, whoever actually gave the orders that resulted in the deaths, are not compatible with the kind of co-operation and help that we, Europe and the United States have set in hand.

Mr. Harry Ewing

The Foreign Secretary says that he is considering the £20 million fund and that he is listening to the plea from his own Back-Bench colleagues for him to reconsider economic aid to the Soviet Union. Does that mean that the Foreign Secretary is thinking about imposing sanctions that he is convinced will persuade the Soviet Union to change its course of action?

Mr. Hurd

We decided recently to give certain limited help, both as a country and as part of the Community, to President Gorbachev's Government as a reforming Government. Were they to turn their back on reform and continue along the path of trying to repress opinion with tanks, obviously it would not be possible to continue our part in that effort.

Mr. Cormack

Will my right hon. Friend seek a very early meeting with the Soviet ambassador and ask him to the Foreign Office? Will he tell him that there is enormous goodwill in this country towards the Soviet Union, but that the golden opinions that Mr. Gorbachev has brought over the past three or four years are now at risk and that, unless things are put right in the Baltic states, that goodwill will be quickly dissipated?

Mr. Hurd

I did that in my own language with ambassador Zamyatin on 8 January.