§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reply he has sent to the Russian request at the United Nations in July, 1968, that discussions take place to avert the risk of the arms race spreading from the land to the ocean floor.
§ Mr. MulleyThe Soviet Government are well aware of our views. In 1967 we suggested in the United Nations that the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee should take up the arms control problems of the sea-bed and, as I informed the House on 22nd July, 1968, we have already proposed this to the Committee itself. The other members of the Committee, including the United States and the Soviet Union, have supported this proposal.—[Vol. 769, c.9.]
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to receive the report of the 18 Nations' Disarmament Conference 126W in Geneva, as a result of the expert study of the threat of a sea-bed arms race.
§ Mr. MulleyThe question of the prevention of an arms race on the sea-bed is on the agenda of the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee, which is due to reconvene in Geneva on 6th March. It is not possible to forecast the course of its proceedings.