Deputy and Assistant
Under-Secretaries
Wied
54
Spokan Wilford 17/12
JA
PIA
THE PLANNING OF MINISTERIAL VISITS
1.
At the last meeting of the Ministerial Visits Committee,
Mr Acland suggested that it would be advisable for us to
draw up a planned list of the incoming ministerial visits
which it would be in our interests to encourage.
and we
2. At the moment, suggestions for incoming ministerial
visits tend to be made on their individual merits
are not well organised to draw up a plan for a programme,
covering say a year in advance, in which priorities would be
clearly established. For example, I have had before me
proposals that the Indonesian Foreign Minister and the
Malaysian Prime Minister should visit this country next
year. If these proposals, the arguments for which are strong,
are agreed, they will absorb quite a large part of the limited
ministerial time available. From the point of view of the
country, are these the proposals to which priority should
be given? Such questions can only be decided when the wishes
of the departments dealing with other parts of the world are
known.
3.
I should therefore be grateful if the recipients of this
circular would consider by mid-December what ministerial visits
from their respective parts of the world they would wish to
see taking place in 1975. I should like the recommendations to
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