§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they will take to assist the people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the exercise of their rights of self-determination and in particular whether they will now entertain claims by the governments of those territories for the return of assets which belonged to their predecessors, as foreshadowed by the then Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in 1969.
§ Lord ReayIf independence is restored to the Baltic States, it would be open to the governments of those states to submit claims. The well established criteria which we have applied to recognition of a state are that it should have, and seem likely to continue to have, a clearly defined territory with a population, a government who are able of themselves to exercise control of that territory, and independence in their external relations.