§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish a table in the Official Report detailing the percentage increase, in real terms, in defence expenditure for (a) the United Kingdom, (b) NATO, (c) the USSR and (d) the rest of the Warsaw Pact countries.
§ Mr. MulleyBetween 1970–71 and 1976–77, the United Kingdom's defence expenditure decreased by about 3 per cent. in real terms. Precise statistics for NATO at constant prices are not available. However, defence expenditure by NATO countries probably declined marginally in real terms between 1970 and 1977 as a result of the fall in United States defence spending which followed the end of the war in Vietnam. Total defence expenditure by the Western European members of NATO probably increased by about 13 per cent. over the same period.
There are no reliable figures for military expenditure published by members of the Warsaw Pact and only broad assessments of trends are possible. 152W Between 1970 and 1976, there was probably a real increase of the order of one-third in the USSR's expenditure, with comparable increases by other members of the pact.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a table listing the percentage of gross national product that is spent on defence by the Union of Soviet Social Republics and the rest of the Warsaw Pact countries, for each year since 1964.
§ Mr. MulleyI have nothing to add to the answer which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Rodgers) on 21st February.—[Vol. 944, c.553.]