§ 48. Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will report progress at the series of disarmament conferences taking place.
§ Mr. LuceAt the Stockholm conference on disarmament in Europe, proposals have now been tabled by the West, Romania, neutral and non-alligned countries and the Soviet Union. Western and NNA countries have suggested that all tabled proposals should be discussed in a working group to ease the transition between plenary debate and substantive negotiations. In the MBFR talks we and our allies are explaining the details of our new proposals tabled on 19 April. We continue to play a leading role at the Geneva conference on disarmament where negotiations are continuing on a comprehensive chemical weapons ban. We strongly urge the Soviet Union to resume negotiations about nuclear weapons without any pre-conditions.