§ 5. Sir Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet)If the memorandum of understanding relating to the United Kingdom's contribution to the United Nations peace support operations, due to be signed in March, will be available for parliamentary scrutiny beforehand. [61341]
§ The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. George Robertson)Our intention to update our existing declaration of forces potentially available to the United Nations for peace support operations, and to incorporate that in a memorandum of understanding, was announced in the strategic defence review. The outcome of the review was fully debated in Parliament. Decisions about whether to commit our forces to particular UN operations will continue to be taken by the Government and will be reported to the House.
§ Sir Sydney ChapmanI am grateful to the Secretary of State for that answer. Given the importance of the 5 memorandum of understanding and the assurance that Parliament should know in which general circumstances troops should be committed, will he consider either referring this issue to the Defence Committee or having a word with the Leader of the House about another parliamentary debate? I congratulate him on his contribution to the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly in Paris last week. As some peace support operations are taking place and will continue to take place in Europe, will he take this opportunity to underline the importance and the continuing contribution made by the WEU and its Assembly?
§ Mr. RobertsonI thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks about my contribution to last week's meeting of the WEU Parliamentary Assembly, which was made in difficult physical circumstances.
Decisions about what troops we deploy to the United Nations will continue to be made by Ministers. We will make those decisions on a case-by-case basis, using certain criteria. Let me tell the hon. Gentleman—well in advance of any memorandum of understanding—that the criteria will include effective ceasefire and the consent of the parties to the on-going political process, exit provision, a clear mandate and possible impacts on any other commitments. That approach will enable us to tailor our force contribution to the circumstances of a particular operation, and to draw on a broad range of capabilities.
§ Mr. Martin Bell (Tatton)Has the Secretary of State considered the merits of a truly committed, dedicated, international UN force whose orders, received from the Security Council, could not then be countermanded or obstructed by the Governments of troop-contributing nations?
§ Mr. RobertsonAt the end of the day, it will be for the Governments of the countries that contribute to any UN force to make decisions about the fate of the forces concerned. The intention is, however, to try to create circumstances in which the UN would have on call forces from a number of different countries to deal with events that might arise. Command and control is clearly one of the more difficult and tricky aspects, and would have to be considered in advance; but I am confident that we would contribute British troops only where clear areas of command existed, allowing us both to be in charge of the troops and their safety and to contribute to the military effectiveness of any such force.