TNAG-2321-FCO40-3365-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 33

Forum for Conciliation

Thirdly, the CSCE should be a forum for conciliation and for finding solutions to disputes between member nations. We are entering a very volatile period in Europe. Over the last 40 years stability has been achieved in the Eastern part of Europe largely by force, by suppressing national feelings and by imposing the Communist ideology. Now that democracy is returning to Eastern Europe, those national feelings are surfacing as people regain pride in their own country. With them are reappearing problems of minorities and of peoples and nations who have been divided or annexed as a result of the territorial changes of the 1930s and 1940s. We need to have in mind the particular position of the Baltic Republics. We welcome the fact that negotiations have started between them and the Soviet Government and we hope for a successful outcome acceptable to both sides.

Nationality and minority problems will not be easy to resolve. Indeed some of them may not be soluble under present circumstances--that does sometimes happen in history. You have to wait and hope that things may be different in the future. The Helsinki Accords made clear that borders can only be changed peacefully by agreement and never by force. These are matters which should be discussed in the CSCE and its role in encouraging peaceful solutions to disputes which may arise should be expanded.

The Politics of Economic Freedom

Fourth, another practical way in which we can use CSCE is to promote the economic freedom which underpins political freedom. More and more people want the politics of economic freedom and we have an obligation to help them to achieve that. But you cannot hand out a market economy freely like a gift. It takes time for freedom to work through and for people to think in new ways. It involves people taking their own decisions and accepting responsibility for them. It is to encourage this that we have established know-how funds because a market economy is not a matter of theory, it is something which has to be learned in practice.

Security

Fifth, and perhaps the most difficult to judge right, is the security aspect. We have made tremendous progress in reducing conventional forces in Europe with the Agreement which we signed earlier today. It is worth remembering that one result of the relaxation of tension is that East and West have been able to come together, as President Gorbachev said, to oppose Iraq's aggression in the Gulf.

I do not think we should expect further dramatic reductions in forces although there are a number of useful measures, particularly on verification and confidence building, which we can still take. Security comes from knowing that you have a strong defence, including nuclear weapons, which have played such an important part in keeping the peace in Europe.

We should not try to make the CSCE into a defence organisation. NATO will remain the core of Western defence. At a time of great change it is important to preserve familiar and well tried structures. Obviously very different considerations apply to the Warsaw Pact and its future is a matter for the countries which belong to the Pact. I notice that President Havel called it an outdated remnant of the past and said he would transform it into an organisation for disarmament.

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