§ Mr. Roperasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made with the plans for a pilot United Nations study on the standardised reporting of military budgets; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LuardThe Secretary-General has reported to the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament that eight States have so far indicated their willingness to participate in a pilot test of the reporting instrument. The United Kingdom is one of these. Our participation is on condition that a representative sample of States is forthcoming. We hope that the pilot test will be speedily concluded so that an agreed standardised United Nations system of reporting military budgets may be introduced as soon as possible. We regard this as an essential pre-requisite of negotiations to achieve international agreement on the balanced and verified reduction of military budgets.