Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
There have been various cautious noises made … INF agreement. One … NATO's Supreme Commander John Galvin. … disparity between conventional forces in Europe. What are your main concerns at this stage of the negotiating process?
Prime Minister
Our concern is to see that when we agree to any particular part of the … we still keep our great capacity to defend ourselves in the way that our defence must be strong enough to deter any aggressor. That is the point of defence. Of course we are all worried about the enormous superiority in Soviet conventional forces and also about their other superiority which is in chemical weapons. We have destroyed our … of chemical weapons. We have got absolutely no response … . at all. They went on building up their … . They modernise them and build up the modern versions so we are saying that the next step after we have signed an INF agreement and the negotiators between the United States and the Soviet Union on using the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, the next step must be to get rid of chemical weapons, to go to verifiable … on that and for them to bring down their conventional weapons to parity with them.
Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
The Soviet Union has expressed thoughts towards a ninety mile buffer zone in Europe following the … of the INF agreement. Do you feel that is a realistic objective? [end p1]
Prime Minister
No, I do not. We have to defend the borders as our [sic] and we have to defend them in a way that is strong enough to deter an aggressor and I think one must not take on the … of the fundamental purpose of NATO. It is their defensive agreement. We are not going to attack anyone. NATO is strictly defensive and will carry out our NATO role.
Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
What circumstances would have to exist before you put Britain's Independent Nuclear Deterrent on the negotiating table?
Prime Minister
Our Independent Nuclear Deterrent is a tiny proportion of the amount which the Soviet Union must have. Even after a 50%; reduction if that comes … Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Indeed, even though we have got Trident, then in proportion, with their reduced amount, Trident will be a lower proportion than Polaris are … We simply must have enough to have an effective deterrent. And we have to remember as well that the Soviet Union anti-submarine warfare capacity to … enormously, so I cannot at the moment foresee the time when we are likely to be able to negotiate with our own Independent Nuclear Deterrent.
Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
But France has an Independent Nuclear Deterrent even though it is not a full member of NATO. What … . Mr Jaques Chirac on this, during the conference here?
Prime Minister
We speak quite frequently. We both agree, and also with President Mitterrand that France's Independent Nuclear Deterrent and Britain's Independent Nuclear Deterrent are not in the present disarmament [end p2] negotiations.
Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
Moving onto the Gulf, you have already expressed the view that the UN forces, a UN task force in the Gulf would be unworkable. What other measures could be brought in apart from the arms embargo that we are now working on?
Prime Minister
Well as you know, Britain is prepared to go to an arms embargo because Iran has not in fact accepted a ceasefire. We hoped she would but she has not … I think the next step is to go to an arms embargo.
Jeff Roberts, British Forces Broadcasting Service
That might cause a problem because of the time factor and the problems … Do you see that that is going to be difficult?
Prime Minister
It will be difficult unless everyone who agreed for that Security Council Resolution is prepared to go to the next step. But you know if you have got … . every effort to uphold that Security Council Resolution then it says very little for even the moral influence of the Security Council unless they are prepared to take upwards steps … implement the Resolution. And may I also say … I have frequently said that we have up to 66,000 armed forces here in Germany, arms and airforce together, and may I say how much everyone appreciates their tremendous professionalism and loyalty and efforts they make in defence of everything that we hold dear.