§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is making a Statement in another place to-day on the International Conference on Vietnam. It has been agreed through the usual channels that this Statement need not be repeated here, but, with the leave of the House, I will arrange for it to be circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
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Following is the Statement referred to:
With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I wish to make a statement.
As honourable Members will know, I attended the International Conference on Vietnam held in Paris from February 26 to March 2. My right honourable friend was present except for a period in the middle of the week when he returned to London to attend to Parliamentary commitments.
This meeting also provided an opportunity for my right honourable friend and myself to hold useful bilateral talks.
The main purpose of the Conference was to acknowledge and support the provisions of the Paris Agreement on Vietnam of January 27. The Conference was able to agree on a document called the Act of the Conference which embodied the common measure of agreement. A copy of the Act has been placed in the Library a the House.
Besides supporting the Paris Agreement the Act provides for the International Commission for Control and Supervision to report to the Governments taking part in the Conference through the parties to the Vietnam agreement: and for the Secretary General of the United Nations as a participant in the Conference to receive these reports for his information. There is also provision for joint consultation in the event of breaches of the Agreement and if necessary for the reconvening of the Conference. We attach the greatest importance to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia and for an end to foreign interference. This is reflected in a separate Article which reaffirms the relevant provisions of the Paris Agreement.
As I said at the initialling ceremony on March 1, 'No document, no words, indeed no conference, can ensure the maintenance of peace in Vietnam. This, as I have indicated, must rest with the parties concerned on the ground. If they are determined that the Agreement will work, it will. If they are not so determined, it will not '.
By signing this Act my right honourable friend and the other Foreign Ministers gave proof of their common support of the Paris Agreement. If it is observed both in the letter and in the spirit, it will serve the cause of peace.