Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement, in the context of United Kingdom membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, on Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the offer of on-site physical verification of Warsaw pact bases, depots and troop deployments in the conventional weapon sector, with less than 12 hours' notice, made by the Soviet negotiators to the United States delegation during the recent Moscow summit.
§ Mr. MellorWe understand that during the summit the Soviet Union proposed an exchange of data on force levels accompanied by verification through on-site inspections, as well as elimination of asymmetries. This movement towards the Western approach in the conventional arms control field is welcome. An Alliance priority now is to reach a balanced outcome in the CSCE review conference in Vienna which will allow the conventional stability talks to commence. Any agreement reached in the talks will certainly require an exchange of data, verified by on-site inspection.