§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many meetings of the Vienna conference on mutual and balanced force reductions in Central Europe have been held and between what dates; and on what points of substance agreement has so far been reached.
§ Mr. Hurd307 plenary meetings have been held since 1973. Both sides have agreed in principle on reductions to a common ceiling of 900,000 troops, beginning with United States and Soviet forces. Substantive progress has 55W not been greater because the East will not so far accept the need for agreed data on current force levels or for effective verification procedures.