§ 51. Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress at current disarmament conferences.
§ Mr. RentonThe United States-Soviet bilateral talks at Geneva resumed on 16 January, in the first round to follow the meeting between President Reagan and General-Secretary Gorbachev last November. We trust that further progress, building on the success of that meeting, will be made this year. At the MBFR talks in Vienna the United Kingdom delagation presented on behalf of NATO allies a new and constructive proposal on 5 December 1985 designed to break the longstanding deadlock. These talks resumed on the 30 January. There has been good progress on procedural issues at the Stockholm conference on disarmament in Europe. We hope this will lead to progress on substance during the ninth session which commenced on 28 January. At the conference on disarmament in Geneva there was limited progress in 1985 in the negotiations for a global ban on chemical weapons. The Conference reconvened on 4 February.