CONFIDENTIAL
9. Israel has subsequently attended ECAFE plenaries in an observer capacity, but her campaign for membership seems to have lost its earlier vigour.
10. Israel's attention is at present devoted to opposing the Lebanese proposal for a (Arabs only) regional economic commission for the Middle East. This proposal, in the form of a draft resolution, is to be examined again at ECOSOC 55 in July. Until that debate is over, Israel is unlikely to campaign for membership of ECAFE but should the Israelis raise this question at the present session the delegation should avoid taking up any position on the Israeli application in advance of the regional members, and should not make any soundings of members' opinions which might be interpreted as encouraging or discouraging the application. The French and US Governments are likely to adopt a similar attitude. Should the Secretariat or Conference officers attempt to shelve the Israeli application by proceeding incorrectly, the Israelis are likely to seek our support in requesting observance of the correct procedure. The Delegation should, in this instance, seek further instructions, and at the same time report the American and French views, before taking any action.
USSR
11. The USSR has hitherto valued her membership of ECAFE primarily as a means of influencing Asian countries in a forum where the People's Republic of China had no voice. In this Session's changed situation the Russians can be expected to go to greater lengths to project themselves as regional members to counter future Chinese influence in the Commission.
12. It is important for the UK that the USSR should not succeed in its efforts to be considered as a regional power, in particular if other non-regional members like the UK were to be down-graded to the level of associate members of ECAFE (see paragraphs 57 to 61 below). Any such Soviet proposals might be countered with the arguments that the USSR has little in common with the Asian countries in the Commission and that the USSR is already a member of the Economic Commission for Europe. But it would be preferable to leave it to the Chinese delegation to make these points.
13. The USSR is generally well represented at ECAFE meetings and at its subsidiary bodies often makes a useful contribution to technical discussions, but at the Plenary Sessions, the Soviet Delegation tends to adopt harder lines full of unconcealed propaganda. For instance, at the last few sessions they have made routine attacks on US "aggression" in Vietnam and have criticised Asian sub-regional organisations. At the 27th and 28th Sessions of ECAFE Soviet interventions were more moderate than in the past and the early attacks on ASEAN have been dropped.
KOREA
14.
The issue of North Korea's admission to, or attendance at, ECAFE meetings may be raised.
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/15. As