CONFIDENTIAL
DEFENCE REVIEW MEETING ON APRIL
1.
The purpose of my meeting at 11.30 am on 4 April (in Room 102 Downing Street, East) is to agree on the outline of the FCO.paper for the Defence Studies Working Party (DSWP). The paper is to consider the implications of cutting any or all of British defence commitments outside NATO.
2.
Mr Roland Smith has been specially assigned to write the paper which is to be ready, at least in draft, by Thursday 11 April. He will take notes at the meeting but will require further urgent consultations with individual Departments in the process of drafting the paper.
3. I suggest that the paper should say that it aims to set down in some detail, but without necessarily being comprehensive, the FCO considerations involved in cutting defence commitments outside NATO. The decision about which commitments are to be cut or reduced will of course be for Ministers to take, probably in July.
4. The paper might then go on to list the individual commitments with price tags attached to them as in the latest MOD paper submitted to the DSWP. A caution about how the figures should be interpreted will be necessary.
5. The body of the paper should be divided into five sections corresponding to the first five priorities in the Guidelines for the Defence Review, viz:
6.
(1) our commitments and forces in the Far East and South East Asia, including the capability to reinforce them;
(2) East;
our commitment to CENTO and otherwise in the Middle
(3) our commitment and forces in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean;
(4) our commitment and forces in the AFSOUTH area of Allied Command Lurope (ACE) and the Mediterranean generally;
(5) our reinforcements and/or assault forces together with associated sea and air lifts, their roles and commitments including the function of responding to the unforeseen;
/NB It has been agreed that for the purpose of this paper AFSOUTH will not be considered7
Under each of the first four sections the individual commitments should be listed separately. Unless there are particular reasons for doing so there is no need to describe them in detail. This has already been don sufficiently for the purpose in DSWP(F)21 Review and DSWP(25. Any bull points er the precise language of the
CONFIDENTIAL
/commitment