§ Mr. Tugendhatasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the present position of Her Majesty's Government regarding the mutual force reduction talks between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries.
§ Mr. HattersleyHer Majesty's Government believe that an agreement on MBFR would be extremely valuable, in so far as it strengthened stability in Central Europe and thereby the basis for confidence in East-West relations. But there remains a fundamental difference of approach between the two sides. The Western participants in MBFR regard the present disparities in ground forces and tanks in Central Europe as a serious destabilising factor, and they have, therefore, proposed asymmetrical reductions to a common ceiling on the ground forces of the two sides. By contrast, the Warsaw Pact countries demand equal percentage reductions which would have the effect of preserving the present imbalance. The Western participants tabled important additional proposals last December, including an offer to withdraw certain United States nuclear weapons from the area. In the ninth round of talks, which begins on 17th May, we shall continue to press for their acceptance.