§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress at the negotiations taking place in the disarmament conferences.
§ Mr. HurdThe Russians are still stalling in the face of radical proposals by the West at the separate Geneva 325W talks on strategic and intermediate range nuclear weapons and at the Vienna talks on reducing conventional forces. But we trust that the Russians may be ready to negotiate more seriously in the nuclear disarmament talks as they finally realise that NATO is determined to proceed with modernisation of its forces if there is no satisfactory agreement at Geneva. Mr. Andropov's remarks last week about INF will need to be explored when the negotiations resume on 17 May. In the committee on disarmament progress has been disappointing, but the United Kingdom has put forward a proposal to help the search for a complete ban on chemical weapons.