§ 40. Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Lord Privy Seal what steps he has taken to verify the evidence put to him by a number of hon. Members in the defence debate that the Russian leaders are prepared to negotiate a multinational balanced force reduction in Europe provided the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is prepared to suspend the deployment of cruise missiles in Europe.
§ Mr. HurdThe Russians appear now to have dropped their unacceptable precondition that NATO's theatre nuclear force modernisation decision should be suspended before they were prepared to negotiate on theatre nuclear forces.