§ Sir Hector Monroasked the Secretary of State for Defence what response the United Kingdom has made to the latest United Nations exercise on the reduction of military budgets; and how this compares with the record of Warsaw Pact countries.
§ Mr. StanleyThe United Kingdom has replied to the questionnaire on military expenditure issued by the UN this year, as it has done every year since 1982. None of the Warsaw Pact nations has provided any input, with the sole exception of Romania which provided a response, albeit an incomplete one, for the first time last year. This refusal by most of the Warsaw Pact to participate is most regrettable.