§ Mr. Amessasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the present situation regarding the conference on security and co-operation in Europe negotiations.
§ Mr. MellorThe Vienna conference on security and cooperation in Europe Meeting is still in its third and final phase, during which work is underway on drafting of a final document. We expect the meeting to go into recess at the start of August and to reconvene in late September. During the current round of negotiations, the United Kingdom delegation has continued to explain and defend the ambitious and constructive initiatives we have tabled in conjunction with other Western countries: these include proposals for a three-stage action programme designed to ensure concrete progress on human rights after Vienna, for an East-West economic conference in the Federal Republic of Germany and for an information forum in London. More recently, the Alliance tabled on 10 July a proposal for further work on confidence and security building measures. We also remain concerned about the many breaches by the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries of their current CSCE commitments, and have continued to raise these issues regularly in debate.