asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the progress, if any, of the Stockholm Disarmament Conference and on the arrangements Ireland has made for consultations with other groups of States.
Written Answers. - Stockholm Disarmament Conference.
18.
The Conference on Confidence and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe (CDE) which has been in progress in Stockholm since January 1984 is today entering its eighth session. The aim of the CDE is to seek agreement on a set of mutually complementary confidence and security building measures (CSBMs) which will reduce the risk of a military confrontation in Europe by bringing about openness and predictability in the use that is made of existing military forces.
The general debate in plenary and in working groups in the course of 1985 has been constructive in tone and increasingly detailed in substance with delegations continuing to expound on and explore the proposals tabled. At the close of the seventh session the conference agreed informal arrangements for discussions outside the official working structure. It is hoped that these discussions will enable the issues to be clarified to the point that the drafting of a concluding document can soon begin. If agreement can be reached on acceptable measures before the next CSCE followup meeting in Vienna in November 1986 this should open the way to a second stage of the conference dealing with concrete disarmament.
There has been no change in our arrangements for consultation since my answer to Deputy Collins on 17 October last year. The Stockholm conference is considered by the Ten — shortly to become the Twelve — within the framework of European political co-operation. We try to find a common position with our Ten partners on various aspects of the conference. On a bilateral basis, we keep in contact with as many delegations as possible, in particular the delegations of other neutral participating States whose approach to arms control has traditionally been close to our own. The basis of our contacts with other delegations is our national position set out by me at the outset of the conference and in subsequent interventions by the Irish delegation.
Question No. 19 taken for oral reply.