§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Lord Privy Seal whether the Soviet offer to negotiate before the decision on the deployment of medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe had been taken was in writing.
§ Mr. HurdIn a speech on 6 October 1979, President Brezhnev offered to reduce the number of medium-range nuclear weapons deployed in the western USSR provided no additional medium-range nuclear weapons were deployed in Western Europe. He repeated this in a subsequent letter to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. The Government's views were spelt out by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence in the House on 24 January.—[Vol. 977, c. 675–76.]