TNAG-1984-FCO40-2817-Presentation-of-UK-policy-on-Hong-Kong-to-the-media-1989 — Page 80

doing all it can within the Community to work for a successful

outcome.

15. The British commitment to the Community is demonstrated every

day in Brussels, in member states and in the conduct of the

Community's external relations. Our contribution to European political cooperation is second to none. We were centrally involved in drawing up the sections of the Single European Act dealing with

cooperation on foreign policy and are actively engaged at every

level in this formulation and presentation of the Twelve's views on

international issues. The way in which the Twelve move together and

support each other commands respect throughout the world. One

striking recent example was the heartening, firm response by all

partners to the death threat issued by Iran against the British

author, Salman Rushdie. The Twelve acted together a powerful signal of our knowledge that a threat to freedom is a threat which

affects us all.

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16. Moving away from the Community for the moment, I should expand

on the UK's role in NATO, the Alliance which has seen, and no doubt

been responsible for, peace for the whole of its existence: it

celebrates its fortieth birthday this year. This Government has

been a vigorous and constructive member of that Alliance throughout

the last decade, a decade which has been vital in giving us greater

hope for East-West relations as we move towards the 21st Century.

Throughout this time, despite the siren voices of the so-called

"Peace Movements", the UK has remained a firm proponent of preserving peace through strength, of looking clearly at the facts of the security equation rather than introducing speculative and

hypothetical factors which lead only to instability and danger.

Alliance's determination to maintain and where necessary to build

adequate de fences has led to the arms control achievements of today,

such as that on INF and the seriousness with which strategic nuclear

forces and conventional forces are being discussed in Geneva and

Vienna. A policy of protecting freedom by using one's common sense is exactly that which we have advocated throughout and which we will

continue to pursue into the next decade.

The