asked the Taoiseach if any approach was made to him to join the appeal launched by Mr. Olaf Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, Mr. de la Madrid, President of Mexico, Mr. Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, Mr. Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece and Mr. Raul Alfonsin, President of Argentina, calling on all the nuclear powers ‘to halt all testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, to be immediately followed by substantial reductions in nuclear forces'.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Appeal to Nuclear Powers.
1.
While I was not approached, the Government share the general aims and the concerns which underlie the matter.
Am I to understand that the Taoiseach was not approached? Can he say if during the course of discussions which he or the Minister for Foreign Affairs had with the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs who visited this country recently this matter was discussed?
I can speak only for myself in this matter. It did not come up for discussion during my discussions with the Swedish Prime Minister in Stockholm a couple of weeks ago.
Could the Taoiseach say whether or not during the visit of the Swedish Prime Minister to this country the matter was discussed by the Taoiseach or the Minister for Foreign Affairs whose guest he was?
It was not discussed with me by the Swedish Foreign Minister or with the Prime Minister of Sweden whom I met in Stockholm a fortnight or so ago. I could not say if it came up for discussion at all with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. That is a separate question and I can address that to him. If I knew, I should tell the Deputy, but I have not got the information.
The Taoiseach would surely think that such an important matter would be high on the agenda for discussion between Foreign Ministers, particularly since the Prime Minister of Sweden was very much involved in launching this issue.
May I ask the Taoiseach if it is intended to support this declaration when it is introduced at the United Nations?
I think that I have already indicated our general support of this approach. It is not precisely the approach which we have ourselves adopted. We have our own initiative in this area, but the general intent and purport of this is something to which we shall be sympathetic, even if we would ourselves approach the problem in a slightly different way.
So it will be given favourable consideration at the United Nations when introduced there?
I think so, yes.
Would the Taoiseach please tell us what exactly is his approach in this matter?
Traditionally Governments tended here to try to support proposals of as practical a character as possible — and I think this is true of all Governments — which have some prospects of securing a fairly reasonably immediate outcome as opposed to proposals which are of a more limited character, which we would not judge to be realistic.
We tended to avoid proposing anything of a more declaratory character which would be less likely to achieve a practical result. This has been the case in traditional diplomacy with all Governments in this country. Therefore, while we can support in general what is proposed here, it is not the particular approach that our Government or our previous Government have adopted. We have tended to look to more reasonable and practical measures for which there would be some hope of support.