§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it remains their view that the present United States Administration has not expressed any intention to deploy strategic defences which would be a breach of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, "strictly interpreted".
§ Lord TrefgarneThe United States' Strategic Defence Initiative is a research programme designed to investigate the feasibility of deploying ABM defences, which could go beyond the scope of the ABM Treaty. But no decision to deploy such defences has yet been taken.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is their understanding, in the course of their discussions on "SDI" with the United 131WA States, that the programme is being continued as a "bargaining chip" in the disarmament negotiations.
§ Lord TrefgarneNo.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the United States Administration has undertaken that, in the event of it deploying Strategic Defences, it would make such "defences" available to the United Kingdom and to France.
§ Lord TrefgarneThe United States emphasises that the Strategic Defence Initiative is designed to enhance Allied as well as US security, and that it strengthens the US commitment to the defence of NATO and other Allies. The scope and type of a deployed ABM system can only be judged once the necessary research work has been completed.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider the deployment of strategic defences by the United States, and therefore presumably by the Soviet Union, to be a desirable development, and what the effect of this would be on the number of (a) boats and (b) missiles that would need to be deployed by the Royal Navy.
§ Lord TrefgarneThe Strategic Defence Initiative is a research programme designed to investigate the feasibility of strategic defences. It is not possible to speculate at this stage of the research on the form any development might take, nor therefore on its implications for British defence policy.