§ Mr. Cabornasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report the date and location of the next meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's nuclear planning group.
§ Mr. StanleyThe next meeting of the NATO nuclear planning group will be held in the Federal Republic of Germany in spring 1986. Further details will be released nearer the time.
§ Mr. Cabornasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) when SACEUR's team on the modernisation of United States' battlefield nuclear weapons assigned to support the British Army of the Rhine will hold discussions with his Department;
(2) whether the W-82 155mm artillery fired atomic projectile is being considered as a replacement for existing nuclear artillery shells assigned to the British Army of the Rhine;
(3) whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's modernisation plan for its battlefield nuclear weapons includes a new short-range ballistic missile and a nuclear version of the multiple launch rocket system.
§ Mr. StanleyI cannot add to the reply that I gave to the hon. Member on 14 January, at columns562–63, and to the NATO nuclear planning group's final communiqué of 30 October 1985, a copy of which is in the Library.
The details of SACEUR's proposals for reductions and improvements affecting NATO's nuclear forces in Europe are classified.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence's predecessor has made it clear that a report 91W would be made to Parliament in respect of modernisation affecting British forces when the appropriate moment comes.