Interviewer
First of all, Prime Minister, a very general question, if I could, about the short-range nuclear missiles.
As far as you are concerned, how important are they to the defence of the West?
Prime Minister
It is not as far as I am concerned—it is far as NATO is concerned—and NATO has made it absolutely certain that they are a vital part of strategic deterrence, a vital part of deterrence at all levels and therefore they must be kept.
Interviewer
You did not want any negotiations on these weapons. Nonetheless, the Declaration from this NATO Summit opens the way for negotiations after a conventional arms agreement. Is that not a setback for you, a defeat? [end p1]
Prime Minister
No. It opens the way for negotiations not only after a conventional arms agreement but after a conventional arms agreement has started to be implemented, so you do not just start the moment you have got an agreement.
It further goes on to say that when you have agreed on a reduction of the short-range weapons, that agreement cannot be implemented until the entire conventional arms reductions have taken place. So no short-range nuclear missile would be taken out, even if you agreed on the partial reduction, until all of the conventional weapons agreements had been fully implemented.
Interviewer
And are you satisfied that those conditions would keep Europe secure?
Prime Minister
Oh yes! One would not have agreed to them in any way. All of the arms reductions are done on the basis that defence and security is our first duty and then you consider how does arms control fit into that, and it is a very good document that we have and very thorough and very comprehensive. It makes it absolutely clear you need conventional and nuclear, you need them at different levels—the big strategic and the short-range as well—and you need them on land, see and air, and a proper mix is needed and that you simply cannot obviate the need for short-range nuclear missiles. [end p2]
Interviewer
But looking into the future, the West German Government is suggesting that this agreement today might be the first stage towards totally eliminating them, that the door has not been closed on total elimination. Do you agree with that assessment?
Prime Minister
No, that is not the document that we have all agreed to and, as you heard a moment ago, the Chairman, Manfred Wörnerthe Secretary-General, say: “partial reduction does not mean entire” . And also, if you look at paragraph 63, it makes it perfectly clear there would be scope for further reductions in the substrategic nuclear forces but it would not obviate the need for such forces. Now that is as clear a declaration as any that you need some short-range nuclear weapons.
Interviewer
Could I turn to President Bush 's announcement yesterday. How pleased were you that the West seems to have taken the initiative again in conventional arms control?
Prime Minister
I was very pleased. As you know, we are getting on quite well in Vienna and I think that President Bush felt that sooner or later we should have some kind of initiative with regard to aircraft, that he thought that initiative should be one which would [end p3] keep our defences fully effective and he thought, therefore, that we should propose something like 15 percent reduction in aircraft, but that 15 percent I believe would not touch our dual-capable aircraft because they have a strategic role and I raised that particular problem because it is vital that the dual-capable aircraft should be out of that reduction.
Interviewer
So the United Kingdom could live with these proposals?
Prime Minister
Yes, with the rider which I have indicated, and of course, France is in the same position as we are, only she is not fully militarily integrated into NATO, so the point we made about dual-capable aircraft is even more important for France and she made it even more vigorously.
Interviewer
Could I briefly turn to another subject? In Brussels last night, while you were attending the NATO Summit, former Prime Minister Edward Heath made a very long speech which seemed to be a response to your speech in Bruges and contained some fairly stinging attacks on you, both personally and on your policies on Europe.
Are you worried by what Mr. Heath had to say? [end p4]
Prime Minister
No. We all know Edward HeathTed!
Interviewer
Are you not worried, though, that just a few weeks before a European election the Conservative Party is so widely split on Europe?
Prime Minister
No. The Conservative Party is absolutely behind our manifesto. Our manifesto is detailed and first-rate and we shall all fight upon it—all of us.
Interviewer
Do you remain suspicious of the bureaucrats of Brussels, because he seemed to defend them?
Prime Minister
I remain suspicious of bureaucracy everywhere and I look at every directive that comes forward most carefully and it goes before Parliament for scrutiny and so it should, because we are answerable to our national Parliament for what we do in the Community.