Five Continents Peace Initiative

HC Deb 17 December 1984 vol 70 c30W

Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the five continents peace initiative.

Mr. Luce

As I said in my answer of 27 June to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, East (Mr. Strang) we share the conviction of the signatories of the appeal that there must never be another world war. We believe that security between East and West would be better improved by the negotiation of balanced reductions in the weapons of the superpowers than by a freeze. We have therefore unreservedly welcomed the meeting between Mr. Shultz and Mr. Gromyko in January which we hope will lead to agreement on how to carry forward the process of negotiating arms control agreements covering both nuclear and outer space questions.