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criticising Chinese actions in Vietnam but Japan was not a Chinese puppet. Nor was Vietnam an enemy of Japan; although Japanese aid to Vietnam had been suspended, the Japanese Government were anxious to keep the channel of communication to Vietnam open.
Dr Mochtar said that this was a wise decision by the Japanese Government. He personally had doubts about the strength of Deng's position in China, and thought that there might be a change of policy within China before long and a loss of Chinese face. Japan should therefore take a stronger line towards the Chinese. By contrast, the leadership in the Soviet Union was aging, and the best strategy for Japan towards the Soviet Union would be a softer line of request and persuasion in respect of the situation in Asia rather than hard words and confrontation. (Hirabayashi commented at this point that Dr Mochtar's line was unusual even for an Indonesian). As a result of this conversation, Sonoda had issued instructions that same evening to the Japanese Ambassador in Peking that he should convey to the Chinese Government Japan's concurrence with the ASEAN statement on Indo-China and ask the Chinese to take ASEAN's concern into account. He had also instructed the Japanese Mission in New York to keep close contact with ASEAN delegations on the Indo-China issue during the Security Council meeting.
7.
I asked whether Dr Mochtar had said anything about the idea of an international conference on Cambodia (Vientiane telno 55 of 22 February). Hirabayashi said that there had been no mention
Matters in Indo-China were perhaps moving too fast, and at the time of the Mochtar/Sonoda discussions, Dr Mochtar might have thought it would be inappropriate to raise the idea of a conference.
of a conference.
8. Most of the discussion on bilateral issues had been taken up with an exposition lasting 80 minutes by Dr Mochtar on Indonesia's archipelago proposal in the Law of the Sea context (Dr Mochtar is of course the author of the Archipelagic Base Line Theory). He had asked for Japanese support de jure for the Indonesian ideas. Sonoda replied cautiously, mentioning Japan's need for guarantees on fishing within the base line, passage through internal waters, and so on. Hirabayashi said that the Japanese side had tried to get Dr Mochtar away from these narrow bilateral issues and to emphasise the wide range of matters on which the two countries should be talking. Japan saw her relations with Indonesia in particular and ASEAN countries in general as covering a broad spectrum of political and economic issues. Certain people in Indonesia, from the President down, thought only of economic cooperation with Japan; the MFA hoped that Dr Mochtar would take back the message that Japan saw the political dimension as also of great importance.
9. I also attended Dr Mochtar's press conference at the end of his visit. He made some routine remarks about Indonesian/Chinese relations (which were friendly despite the absence of diplomatic relations) and the Indo-China situation. Asked about his attitude towards Japanese mediation in Indo-China he said that Indonesia
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