CONFIDENTIAL UKEA
Protection of Minorities in August. However, at the
However, at the end of this year, the United Kingdom will lose its place on the Human Rights Commission; partly, we suspect, because several Communist and Third World members may have resented the way we have been "making waves" and drawing attention to matters which, in their view, were best left unremarked.
18. Meanwhile, the continuing flow of Vietnamese "boat people" abroad, and news of the Communist regime's crackdown on "capitalist traders" and others, has begun to create a groundswell of criticism of Vietnam, and questioning of the Government's attitude to that country as indicated, for example, by the offer under the Trade/Aid Contingency Fund of money to enable the Vietnamese to order five British merchant ships off the shelf; but the offer was in fact made as a means of helping the British shipbuilders, and not precisely out of solicitude for Vietnam. The new Vietnamese Ambassador in London, Tran Hoan, is several cuts above the calibre of the previous Chargé d'Affaires, the Party hack Giai, and may try to respond by moving out of the self-created political ghetto that the Vietnamese Mission has provided for itself since 1975.
19. The unfortunate Laotians, whose Ambassador in London has for the second time been recalled to Vietnam for "re-education" have just told us that they see no further use for our English Language Teaching VSOS after the end of the current academic year; but they hope we shall be prepared to provide Laos with educational materials subsequently. We have told the Laotians that the hope is unlikely to be realised.
ASEAN
20. With Lord Goronwy-Roberts' help we have managed to interest the Secretary of State in South East Asia and ASEAN. Dr Owen has been guest at a luncheon given by the ASEAN Committee in London (the Heads of Mission of ASEAN member countries). Michael Palliser will have lunch with the Committee later in May. Since the Committee's recent formation, its members have begun meeting monthly under the chairmanship of the Malaysian High Commissioner, and have acquired a greater corporateness. We do what we can to convey interest in their Association and to make clear that we take seriously develop- ments in its part of the world (the Prime Minister has made the point in correspondence with Datuk Hussein Onn, in the Concorde connection).
21. We are having ASEAN developments looked at by the Cabinet Office, to see whether, at some stage, these may redound to the disadvantage of British interests. We shall let you know the out- come. Our tentative view is that ASEAN is more (just a little) than the sum of its members, and is worth supporting as a political Association which enhances the self-confidence of its members (who are friendly to us) faced as these are by considerable internal difficulties and by the Communist regimes in Indo-China. For lack
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