TNAG-2053-FCO40-2926-Hong-Kong-parliamentary-matters-1990 — Page 51

QUEEN'S SPEECH ON OPENING OF PARLIAMENT

My Lords and Members of the House of Commons

I look forward with much pleasure to receiving [His Highness Shaikh Jabir Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the Amir of the State of Kuwait in the Spring).

I also look forward to [visiting the United States of America in May and] being present on the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Zimbabwe next Autumn.

My Government will continue to attach the highest priority to national and Western security, and to the preservation of peace with freedom and justice. They will continue to give full support to NATO as the basis for collective Western defence, and will maintain adequate and effective nuclear and conventional forces. They will also play a full part in adapting NATO strategy and force structures to take account of the welcome changes in Europe.

My Government will work for balanced and verifiable measures of arms control. They welcome the prospect of the signature of an agreement on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and will play an active part in further negotiations on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and in the multilateral negotiations in Geneva on the abolition of chemical weapons.

My Government will work to strengthen still further the existing good relations between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, and to support the process of economic and political reform there. They will make every possible effort to buttress the new democracies in Eastern Europe and to help their governments to reform their economies. They will play an active part in the Paris meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

My Government look forward to the early unification of Germany and to the ending of Quadripartite Rights and Responsibilities regarding Germany as a whole and Berlin. They will work closely with the Government of the united Germany, bilaterally, within the European Community and NATO and elsewhere.

My Government will continue to work with our European Community partners to complete the Single Market; to pursue their proposals on economic and monetary cooperation at the Inter-Governmental Conference starting in Rome in December; to work to make the Community Institutions more efficient, effective and accountable. They will play a full part in the finasl stages of the GATT Vraguay Round and will continue to promote multilateral efforts to liberalise international trade. They will support the Community's negotiations with EFTA for the establishment of a European Economic Area. They look forward to the conclusion of Association Agreements with the reforming countries of Eastern and Central Europe and to the beginning of operations of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from its London headquarters.

My Government will maintain a substantial aid programme in order to promote the sustainable economic and social progress of developing countries and to help alleviate poverty. Aid will be used to help protect the enviroment and to promote good government in recipient countries.