asked the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has as to the view of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries of the correct way to assess the imbalance of conventional forces between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Warsaw Pact.

NATO published a booklet entitled "Force Comparisons" in 1984 which describes the methodology for counting force levels and equipment. The United States publication "Soviet Military Power 1986" and the 1985 FRG White Paper "The Situation and Development of the Federal Armed Forces" follow this procedure, which is also the basis for our own comparisons of NATO and Warsaw Pact forces described in annex A to "The Statement on the Defence Estimates 1986" (Cmnd. 9763-I).