§ Mr. Nicholas Brownasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in the light of the recent accord between the East German Government and the Government of Finland in respect of payments by the East German Government to Finnish subjects who owned property in East Germany in 1945, he will take further steps to press the claims of British nationals with similar claims.
§ Mr. RentonWe understand that the agreement between Finland and the German Democratic Republic which was initialled on 3 October 1984 dealt with some 30 claims which Finnish citizens had made against the German Democratic Republic. We have held six rounds of detailed talks with the East German authorities since 1980 on the more than 300 British claims against the German Democratic Republic. The East German authorities have recently accepted our invitation to a22W plenary session of discussions on these claims in the first half of next year. We trust that this will contribute to an early settlement of the claims.