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areas. Within NATO, the UK has been active in helping to shape that agenda. These are themes which I am sure will recur throughout this debate and which my noble friend Lord Trefgarne will wish to
develop.
My Lords, over the past eight years the entire Western Alliance has
been strengthened by the leadership of President Reagan and
Secretary of State Shultz. I am sure your Lordships will, as we look forward to the new Administration, wish to join me in
expressing our warm thanks to President Reagan and his colleagues
for their record of outstanding achievement in East-West relations.
- We have enjoyed an exceptionally close relationship with this
Administration and we already know Vice President Bush well. We
congratulate him on his election victory, and welcome the prospect
of essential continuity in American foreign policy, where the President-elect commands wide experience. We look forward to
working with the new Administration in the warm spirit of the Prime
Minister's visit last week to Washington.
My Lords, I have said that where our security is at issue we can
afford only to take account of Soviet deeds, not words. We choose
the same approach over principles that matter to us.
We shall therefore keep up our pressure on the Soviet Union to
Yes improve its human rights record.
there have been recent
But without clear
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changes for the better in Soviet performance.
evidence that these changes will be permanent, we believe it would
be wrong to attend a Moscow CSCE Conference on human rights.
We have long argued that there is no inconsistency between a
hard-headed Western approach to security issues and human rights,
and a desire for improved relations with the East.
- Look at the facts. Anglo-Soviet relations are acknowledged by both
sides to be at their best since the war. We have established an
active and productive dialogue at the highest level.
President
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