HC Deb 27 June 1984 vol 62 c482W
40. Mr. Peter Bottomley

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he last raised the case of Dr. Andrei Sakharov with the Soviet authorities.

Sir Geoffrey Howe

I last did so with Mr. Gromyko at the Stockholm conference in January. In response to recent developments my right hon. Friend, the Minister for Trade raised the case again with the Soviet authorities in Moscow at the end of May and, following a British initiative in the Ten, the Presidency made a demarche to the Soviet authorities on 18 May in the form of a letter from M. Cheysson to Mr. Gromyko. Regrettably, none of these approaches have met with any Soviet response.