§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's policy in dealing with international terrorism.
§ Dr. OwenWe have taken every opportunity to express our abhorrence of actions which put the lives of innocent people in danger. We strongly condemn all terrorist acts.
Our determination to combat terrorism internationally is shown by our ratification of The Hague Convention of 1970 on Hijacking and the Montreal Convention of 1971 on Sabotage of Aircraft. We participated at the last United Nations General Assembly in a consensus resolution calling for the setting up of a committee to draft a convention against the taking of hostages. It is the Government's intention to sign on 27th January the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, recently adopted by 383W the Council of Europe, and to seek parliamentary approval to enable it to ratify the convention without reservations at the earliest possible opportunity. In addition, a group of senior officials is meeting within the framework of European political co-operation to consider the follow-up to the European Council Declaration on Terrorism.