§ Sir Robin Maxwell-HyslopTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement concerning the gold deposited in the Bank of England by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggAs the movement towards the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania gathered pace in 1990, Baltic representatives and supporters raised questions about the gold which the Baltic central banks had deposited with the Bank of England before the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states in 1940. On 8 May 1990 my right hon. Friend the former Minister of State told the House that if the Baltic states achieved their independence they could advance claims for the gold.
Following the Government's recognition of the independence of the Baltic states on 27 August 1991, I immediately visited the three states and made clear that we hoped to settle the question of the gold promptly and on a basis satisfactory to all concerned. We invited representatives of each Baltic state to come to London for a first round of discussions on the gold and other financial matters. These took place in November: the Baltic Governments each formally lodged a request for their respective share of the gold.
Since then we have been working up appropriate proposals. This work has been completed. In general terms, the Government would like to see these questions settled on the following basis. We propose to transfer to each Baltic state gold equal in quantity to the gold deposited with the Bank of England before 1940 by its respective central bank, or the gold's equivalent value in money should the Baltic states themselves so prefer. We envisage this transfer as part of a settlement whereunder in each case no further claims would be pursued by either Government. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister this morning met President Landsbergis of Lithuania at Downing street and conveyed to him in general terms our proposals; he also sent parallel messages to the Prime Ministers of Estonia and Latvia.
We have invited each Baltic Government to send representatives for further rounds of discussion aimed at completing the various technicalities involved; meetings with an Estonian delegation and a Lithuanian delegation are scheduled for 27 and 28 January respectively. We hope to reach final agreement with each Baltic Government by the end of March.
We want our relations with the newly-independent Baltic states to begin on the best possible footing. We are very pleased to be on the way to bringing this long-standing question to a satisfactory conclusion.