§ Dr. David Owenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether, in view of the lack of progress over a long period at the Vienna talks, new proposals for a multi-balanced force reduction agreement on non-nuclear arms reductions will be considered at the Stockholm conference;
(2) what proposals in relation to confidence building, security and disarmament in Europe the Government are tabling at the Stockholm conference;
(3) what are the main items proposed to be discussed at the Stockholm conference agreed at the Madrid conference and opening on 17 January 1984.
§ Mr. LuceThe Stockholm conference, in accordance with the mandate agreed at the Madrid CSCE follow-up meeting, will discuss confidence and security building measures which must be militarily significant, politically binding, verifiable and cover the whole of Europe. In consultation with our allies we will put forward proposals designed to increase confidence and reduce the danger of surprise attack through greater openness about normal military patterns of behaviour. It lies with a future CSCE review meeting, the next of which begins in Vienna in November 1986, to decide whether to extend the mandate to cover arms reductions. Meanwhile, we remain committed to negotiating lower, equal levels of forces in the MBFR talks in Vienna.