HC Deb 11 January 1989 vol 144 cc702-3W
22. Mr. Dykes

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has been able to make an assessment of the main foreign policy points in Mr. Gorbachev's 6 December speech to the United Nations in regard to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic's relations with the United Kingdom and other Western countries.

Mr. Waldegrave

Yes. We have welcomed Mr. Gorbachev's speech as the clearest exposition so far a less ideological Soviet approach to foreign policy. This approach, if maintained, should help to improve further east-west relations and on our bilateral relations with the Russians, and lead to increasing practical progress in arms control, human rights and the settlement of regional conflicts.