NATO: Public Information (Hansard, 8 April 1998)

§ Lord Gilbert

The Government have undertaken to provide time for debates in both Houses on the proposed accession to NATO of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland before they ratify the accession protocols, which have today been laid before the House, together with explanatory memoranda. The Government have, as always, co-operated fully with the Defence Select Committee in another place in its enquiry on NATO enlargement and given it access to appropriate documents. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister made a statement on 9 July 1997 on the outcome of the Madrid NATO Summit and the Government have responded regularly to questions on this topic. In addition, a briefing note on the studies of the costs of NATO enlargement was placed in the Library of the House last month, and the Ministry of Defence is today publishing documents and information on NATO and NATO enlargement on its World Wide Web site at http://www.mod.uk. Copies of these Internet pages are also available from today in the Library of the House.