§ Mr. Gwynfor Evansasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the estimated military expenditure on NATO and the Warsaw Pact for each year since 1970, giving the year-by-year percentage increase and the overall percentage increase from 1970 to the latest available year.
§ Mr. MulleyAs I explained in the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) on 5th April—[Vol. 947, c. 151]—it is only possible to give a broad assessment of trends. Between 1970 and 1977 there was probably a marginal real decline in overall NATO defence expenditure as a result of the fall in United States defence spending which followed the end of the war in Vietnam. Total defence expenditure by the Western European members of NATO probably increased by about 13 per cent. over the same period. There are no reliable figures for military expenditure published by members of the Warsaw Pact and only broad assessments of trends are possible. Between 1970 and 1976 there was probably a real increase of the order of one-thtird in the USSR's military expenditure, with comparable increases by other members of the pact.