§ Lord Mulleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish the study by NATO, disclosed to the press on 21st June in Brussels, of the comparison between Warsaw Pact and NATO forces; and whether they will indicate the differences between these estimates of the respective forces and those given in their Statement on the Defence Estimates.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces (Lord Trefgarne)I have placed a copy ofNA TO and the Warsaw Pact Force Comparisons, published by NATO on 21st June, in the Library. The main difference in the comparison of forces between the NATO document and SDE 84 is that the latter includes details of French forces. Differences of detail stem from differing definitions, geographical scope, and methods of counting Warsaw Pact forces adopted by NATO and United Kingdom authorities. Both documents demonstrate clearly the scale of Soviet conventional and nuclear forces and the threat to NATO.