§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is Her Majesty's Government's policy on the total withdrawal of Soviet short-range nuclear forces from eastern Europe outside the terms of a multilateral disarmament agreement between NATO and the Warsaw pact.
§ Mr. WaldegraveNATO has repeatedly called on the Soviet Union to reduce the number of its short-range nuclear missile systems, in which it enjoys a substantial numerical superiority vis-a-vis the West.
§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is Her Majesty's Government's policy on the total withdrawal of Soviet armed forces from eastern Europe(a) at the request of east European Governments and (b) as part of the conventional forces in Europe talks in Vienna.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe CFE agreement will set limits on participating states' armed forces in the area of application (from the Atlantic to the Urals). The western treaty text (tabled on 14 December) envisages that it will be for each alliance to determine how these residual forces will be apportioned among its members. Soviet armed forces are already being withdrawn from certain east European countries as a result of bilateral agreements. The future of Soviet forces in the GDR has yet to be agreed. But we could imagine the continued presence of Soviet troops for a transitional period.