Wilton Park Conferences (Hansard, 18 February 1994)

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Responsibility for the first Iwo parts of the question has been delegated to Wilton Park under its chief executive, Professor Richard Langhorne, who has on my instructions written to the hon. Member.

Through its series of international conferences in which senior politicans, officials, businessmen, academics and other professionals participate, Wilton Park aims to contribute to the solution of international problems.

Letter from R. T B. Langhorne to Mr. Llew Smith, dated 15 February 1994: I have been asked to reply to your question concerning Wilton Park. As it happens, the conference most directly related to the subject of your interest is in progress at Wilton House this week. 1035W I am therefore enclosing the programme and the list of participants for your information. There are other conferences in the 1994 list during which, although their titles are not directly related to the question of proliferation, the matter either has or will come up tangentially. The enclosed list of the year's topics will show you where this is likely to occur. The Annual Report is laid before the House and it contains a detailed list of conferences held by Wilton Park. We have not in the past sent the list of forthcoming conferences to Members of Parliament, except to those MPs who sit on the Wilton Park Academic Council. I propose to ask the Council at its next meeting whether this should be done for next year and thereafter. The conferences are designed above all to stimulate off-the-record discussion, and participants are encouraged not to be unduly diplomatic, but to express disagreement frankly. The aim is not so much to exchange information, or even opinions, as to influence attitudes. More and more Wilton Park acts as a forum for those involved in regional and other international conflicts, in such diverse places as Southern Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, to explore their differences and seek through dialogue a better mutual understanding which could contribute to eventual resolution of conflicts. Wilton Park conferences bring together people from many countries coming from diverse professional backgrounds and holding positions of responsibility in different fields of activity. The international and interprofessional composition of each conference guarantees that all learn much from each other. Finally, I would make two very particular points about Wilton Park. It frequently brings together a mixture of participants from states who cannot sustain largescale foreign services of their own and provides a forum in which their politicians and officials can meet not only their opposite numbers from other states of all kinds, but also the officers of international organisations and their agencies. Secondly, at a time when there are acute new stresses on the foreign representation of the United Kingdom arising from the increased numbers of states and the rising number of acute crises in international affairs, Wilton Park is able to perform an increasingly significant role in bringing relevant people and information directly into the United Kingdom.