HC Deb 16 December 1981 vol 15 cc149-50W
Mr. Kilfedder

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who requested the meeting that he had with Mr. William Clark, United States Deputy Secretary of State; what matters he discussed with Mr. Clark; and whether these included the question of a united Ireland.

Mr. Michael Brown

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement regarding his discussions with the United States Deputy Secretary of State.

Mr. Prior

The Government learnt that the United States Deputy Secretary of State was visiting the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Ireland in early December and therefore took the opportunity to invite him to have talks in London with Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers and with me.

At my meeting with Judge Clark I explained Her Majesty's Government's policy in Northern Ireland. The desirability of increasing American investment in Northern Ireland and the need to ensure that the facts about terrorism there are properly understood in the United States were also discussed.

We did not discuss the unification of Ireland. The United States Government's position on this issue was most recently stated on 8 December when a State Department spokesman said—as reported in the New York Times on 9 December—that the United States has no policy or position on the question of Irish reunification".