OPENING SPEECH
CONFIDENTIAL
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons
[I look forward with much pleasure to receiving the State Visit
of His Excellency the President of the Republic of India next
year.]
I also look forward to visiting New Zealand next February for the
celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Treaty of Waitingi
and to attend the Commonwealth Games, and, in June, to paying a
State Visit to Iceland and a visit to Canada.
[My Government will continue to attach the highest priority to
the maintenance of national and Western security and to the
preservation of peace with freedom and justice. They will stand
fully by their obligations to the NATO Alliance and will continue
to sustain the United Kingdom's contribution to Western defence
by adequate and effective nuclear and conventional forces.]
My Government will work for balanced and verifiable measures of
arms control and for the abolition of chemical weapons. They
will continue to play an active part in the Vienna negotiations
on the reduction of Conventional Foces in Europe with a view to
promoting increased security and stability with lower levels of
armaments. They strongly support the United States' proposals
for 50 per cent reductions in American and Soviet strategic
nuclear weapons; and the multilateral negotiations in Geneva on
the abolition of chemical weapons.
My Government will continue to promote improved relations between
East and West, including through the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and to work for further progress on human rights. They will aim to strengthen still further the present very positive relations between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. They will participate fully in Western efforts to support
SB3ABG
CONFIDENTIAL