As made clear in 21 March 1974 Announcement, NATO is linch-pin of Britain's security and the first charge on the resources made available for defence. Defence commitments outside NATO have been examined case by case as foreshadowed in 21 March statement.
7. We shall continue to maintain our present obligations in respect of defence of all remaining dependent territories. Outside Continental Europe we propose to effect substantial reductions in our present commitments to independent. nations and, in consequence, to make large savings in expenditure as compared with the plans of our predecessors. The Government have now made provisional decisions on these reductions but we must now consult our allies and partners on the precise scope and timing of these changes before final decisions can be made and embodied in a White Paper. Consultations will begin at once. Meanwhile it would be wrong to prejudge the results of these consultations by giving details of the provisional decisions now.
NATO Commitments and Capabilities
8. Withdrawals from non-NATO commitments as outlined above will lead to an even greater concentration of Britain's military capabilities onto NATO commitments than at present. But savings from reduction of non-NATO commitments will not by themselves be sufficient. Therefore some adjustments of our NATO capabilities
and of forces committed to NATO are inevitable unless Britain is to continue to shoulder a burden which entails devoting a significantly larger share of its GNP to defence than our major European allies. But by making the adjustment progressively we will minimise the
effect of the cuts on our NATO contribution.
9. Must redirect efforts in NATO to objectives crucial to Alliance
and hence UK security. After full consideration Government have
concluded that, on these criteria, Britain must continue to maintain effective and balanced contributions to the Alliance's :
a.
strategic nuclear deterrent, in which Britain has
capability to provide the major and most effective contribution from Europe to the strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance;
SECRET
10.