HC Deb 24 May 1978 vol 950 cc573-4W
Mr. Arthur Latham

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response Her Majesty's Government have suggested should be made by the Russians to the United States decision to postpone development of the neutron bomb; and what response Her Majesty's Government have suggested should be made to Mr. Brezhnev's proposal that no additional tanks or men should be added to Warsaw Pact forces.

Mr. Judd

The Government's view is that the Soviet Union should respond by measures to moderate the threat which we see from the scale of their build-up of both nuclear and conventional armaments.

Any undertaking not to increase Soviet forces further in Central Europe is welcome. President Brezhnev's statement calling on Western states to freeze their forces in the area, however, would still leave NATO forces at their present disadvantage. It would not produce the genuine parity which is the Western objective in MBFR.