To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what response he made to the visit of Mr. Landsbergis, President of Lithuania; and if he will make a statement.

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister had talks with Professor Landsbergis on 13 November. She emphasised that we had never recognised de jure the incorporation of the Baltic States into the USSR and that we continued to support the right of the Lithuanian people to decide their own future. She referred in her speech to the CSCE Paris summit to the particular position of the Baltic republics and to the need for a nogotiated settlement acceptable to both sides. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and Professor Landsbergis agreed on the importance of developing and strengthening contacts between Britain and the Baltic states.