§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many French (a) surface ships, (b) submarines and (c) fixed-wing tactical aircraft are included in the NATO forces shown on page 8 of Command Paper No. 7099; and why French forces have not been included in the balance of forces between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the Eastern Atlantic and in Central Europe in previous statements on the defence estimates.
§ Mr. MulleyIt is not the practice to provide the figures requested.
The "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1978", Cmnd. Paper No. 7099, includes certain French forces which the Warsaw Pact would be bound to take into account, even though French forces are not integrated into the military structure of NATO. This, in my view, gives a more accurate representation of the balance of forces, though, as paragraph 121 of the White Paper says, the assessment of military balance is complex and many-sided, and cannot be reduced to a single neat ratio.