HC Deb 25 January 1984 vol 52 cc597-8W
35. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress at the conference on confidence and security building measures and disarmament, which began in Stockholm on 17 January.

Sir Geoffrey Howe

I refer my hon. Friend to the statement I made yesterday.

Mr. Latham

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether, as part of the discussion on confidence and security building measures, Her Majesty's Government will table at the Stockholm conference a draft treaty committing both the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation powers and the Warsaw Pact powers to no first use of any weapons against each other;

(2) what response has been made by the United Kingdom to the Eastern bloc powers' proposal for a non-aggression pact between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation powers and the Warsaw pact countries.

Mr. Luce

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's objective within the mandate of the Stockholm conference is to negotiate practical, verifiable and militarily significant measures to reduce each side's uncertainty about the military activities of the other. We and our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies tabled a detailed package of proposals on 24 January designed to achieve this.

In the response to last year's Eastern bloc proposal for a non-aggression pact, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Foreign Ministers stressed that respect for the obligation not to use force, enshrined in the United Nations charter and the Helsinki final act, is already mandatory and applicable between all states without exception. The real need was for substantive results on arms control, disarmament and confidence-building measures, since this would enhance the credibility of the non-use of force. The Stockholm conference should concern itself, at least initially, with the negotiation of specific measures. But, if progress were to warrant it, we would not exclude the possibility of considering at a later stage more general declarations of intent.