TNAG-1755-FCO40-2475-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-debates-1988 — Page 34

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discussions across Asia and the South Pacific that our diplomacy is

admired because we as a country are held in greater respect in the

world than for many years.

At home, we have re-established prosperity. Solid economic growth has been sustained now for eight years. Economic liberalisation has brought worthwhile results. Our policies have been studied and

imitated around the world.

We have also taken care to safeguard our security through the maintenance of a strong defence, including an effective nuclear

deterrent. We have thereby earned an authoritative place at the

arms-control table.

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These are achievements which both buttress and give purpose to our

foreign policy.

My Lords, nowhere have the changes on the international scene been

more striking than in the area of East-West relations.

Change here has been possible firstly because the West has remained

firm, united and consistent in its approach. But the approach of

the Soviet Union has also become more pragmatic. We welcome Mr

Shevardnadze's public assurances about the downgrading of the role

of ideology in Soviet foreign policy. We do detect a more

constructive Soviet approach on some issues of common concern.

We do not underestimate the significance of the changed Soviet

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 look forward to seeing him here

again in a few weeks' time.

Nevertheless the Soviet Union remains a superpower with an ideology

fundamentally antagonistic to Western concepts of democracy. Its

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