HL Deb 11 April 1983 vol 441 c90WA
Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they understand that while a strategic nuclear weapon is quite distinct from an intermediate-range or "theatre" nuclear weapon in the thinking of the US Government in that the former can reach American territory while the latter cannot, for the Soviet Government there can be no similar distinction because all NATO "theatre" or intermediate-range nuclear weapons can reach Soviet territory.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Belstead)

Definitions of strategic nuclear weapons were jointly agreed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the SALT Treaties. Soviet intermediate-range nuclear weapons, which can reach NATO Europe from the Soviet Union and which were excluded from SALT, heavily outnumber comparable NATO systems. In addition there is no doubt that many Soviet strategic systems are targeted on Western Europe. It is not true that all NATO "theatre" nuclear weapons have the range to reach Soviet territory.