§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the basis for individual member nations' contributions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation common funding arrangements; and what are the current proportions paid by each member nation.
§ Mr. PymThere are three permanent common funding arrangements within NATO—infrastructure, the military budget and the civil budget. The basis of infrastructure cost sharing is related to ability to pay, modified to take account of benefit to the user and economic benefit to the host nation. There is no corresponding basis laid down for the cost sharing of the military and civil budgets, although abilityto pay was a major factor at the time the funding arrangements were first made. The present cost sharing percentages are set out in the following table:
tions; and what percentage of overall Soviet force levels stationed in the German Democratic Republic represented by the recently proposed force reductions announced by President Brezhnev.
§ Mr. HayhoeWe estimate that since the MBFR negotiations began in Vienna 529W in 1973, the number of tanks in the group of Soviet forces Germany has increased by about 500. There has also been a small increase in the number of personnel.
President Brezhnev's announced withdrawal of up to 20,000 men and 1,000 tanks from East Germany would represent a reduction of about 5 per cent. in manpower and 12.5 per cent. in tanks in the Soviet forces stationed in that country.