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approach. Indeed, it was my rt hon Friend the Prime Minister who first declared, at the time of Mr Gorbachev's visit to this country in 1984, that here was a man with whom we could do business. We admire the efforts he is making to change the conditions in which Soviet people think and work.
We do
We welcome too Mr Shevardnadze's public assurances about the downgrading of the role of ideology in Soviet foreign policy. detect an apparent new willingness on the part of the Soviet Union to discuss differences in a constructive way and to co-operate in
the search for solutions to problems of common concern.
But the Soviet Union remains a superpower with interests that will not necessarily coincide with ours and an ideology fundamentally
antagonistic to Western concepts of democracy. The KGB continues to practice subversion abroad. The process of domestic reform has only just begun and has already encountered difficulties and resistance. We cannot with confidence predict how things will go in future, although we are right to wish Mr Gorbachev success.
For these reasons, we must be cautious. Most of all, we cannot
afford to ignore the reality of Soviet military power. It is for my noble friend Lord Trefgarne to describe the details of that reality. It is sufficient to note here that there has been no slowdown in the
rate of Soviet defence spending or military procurement, and no
change in the scale or configuration of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact
forces facing NATO in Europe.
In this vital area, Soviet intentions must be judged by deeds, not
words or the number of generals on Lenin's mausoleum for the
November parade.
The best guarantor of our security remains the NATO Alliance, to which we have brought a strong military defence and a clear sense of purpose and commitment. NATO's policy of nuclear deterrence has helped to keep the peace for 40 years. NATO's united and consistent stand on arms control issues has brought concrete results, most