 Earlier in the debate he had pointed out that, "What has brought the recent advances in negotiations on disarmament of conventional and nuclear weapons at all levels?The reason simply is that, through the defence policy pursued by Britain, the United States and NATO, we have shown our determination to defend ourselves from aggression and potential domination by the deployment of cruise missiles, by the introduction of Trident and by the maintenance of our defence commitment by increasing it by 3 per cent.every year during the past five years.."

He underlined the fact that, "We tell the Soviet Union that we shall negotiate disarmament, because that is what we want, but we shall negotiate only from strength.