§ Mr. Biggs-Davisonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the Anglo-Soviet Round Table set up as a result of the visit of the then Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to the USSR in February 1975.
§ Mr. LuardIn the Anglo-Soviet Joint Statement of 17th February 1975 the British and Soviet Governments resolved to set up an Anglo-Soviet Round Table whose members would be distinguished representatives of public life, science, culture, commerce, the Press, and other fields. The first meeting of the Round Table was held in London on 24th and 25th October 1975. The second meeting 399W took place in Moscow on 19th and 20th October 1976. A third meeting is expected to be held in London later this year.
The Anglo-Soviet Round Table has proved to be a valuable non-governmental forum for the exchange of views on international and bilaterial questions such as detente, arms limitation, trade and international economic affairs. Exchanges such as these contribute both to the consolidation of a safer and more productive relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union, and to the wider process of detente.