CONFIDENTIAL
CONSERVATIVE FOREIGN POLICY
The most authoritative recent statements of Conservative policy have been contained in Mr Pym's speeches of 8, 12 and 20 March on Foreign Policy, the Commonwealth, and Europe respectively. The Conservative Manifesto will be out early next week. Further points may emerge in response to the Labour Manifesto (due on 7 April) and during the campaign; especially perhaps in response to the Rhodesian election.
General
2.
Mr Pym headed the conclusion to his speech of 8 March: "Time for a new approach. "
This echoed Mr Davies' insistence at Chatham House last summer. that foreign policy was becoming less bipartisan.
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"The underlying theme of Conservative foreign policy is the safeguarding not only of our own freedom, but also that of the whole free world. "We shall need ... a much more comprehensive and global approach in our foreign policy."
East-West
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"Dominating all other events is the adverse swing in the balance of power between East and West." brought about by:
5.
(a) Military build-up in the East "far beyond any legitimate requirement for defence" (quoting President Carter).
(b) Western failings. A "temporary and ... understandable" lapse of US confidence. Britain's economic and defence weakness.
The result is that since their Angolan success the Russians have been able
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to intervene in regional crises "with impunity. The Soviet fleet poses a major
threat, "especially in Southern Africa." The West lacks "both the means to make a response, and the will. "
Détente
6. "The whole trend of events must call into question both the meaning and the value of the détente process." Détente is a balance between confrontation and cooperation but at present it is, "to put it politely," asymmetrical: the East confronts and the West cooperates. If East-West relations are to improve, (and it is "central to the Conservative Party's] whole approach" to persevere in that), the Soviet Union must understand that détente is a "comprehensive concept.
Defence
7.
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The decline in Britain's capability is "the inevitable result of massive cuts in defence expenditure during the past four years. Mrs Thatcher has called defence "the overriding duty of any Government. " (And see paragraph 12.) In the House of
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CONFIDENTIAL