§ 47. Mr. Freemanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the latest session of the Stockholm disarmament conference.
§ Mr. LuceThe second round of the Stockholm conference began on 8 May and ended on 6 July. The Soviet Union formally circulated its proposals for confidence and security-building measures: Western countries, Romania, and the neutral and non-aligned countries—NNA—tabled theirs in the first round. The plenary debate continued. Western and NNA countries increasingly used plenary speeches to try to begin detailed discussions: Eastern interventions were more general in character. In the last few weeks, the focus was on procedural issues. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union and her allies withheld agreements to a working group structure for substantive negotiations. The issues will have to be addressed again in the next round which begins on 11 September.