243/1
CONFIDENTIAL
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Me aingain 82%
British Embassy
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p...
A M Simons Esq South-East Asian Dept
FCO
Lea Vimm
STOCKHOLIVI
30 July 1979
HKK 243/1
SWEDEN AND VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1.
4860
I called on 27 July on Sven Hirdman (Head of the Department in the MFA which deals with South East Asia, China and the Soviet Union) to talk about the Geneva Conference to which Hirdman had accompanied his Minister, Hans Blix.
2. I said that the Conference seemed to have gone as well as could have been hoped and asked Hirdman to give me Swedish views on the Conference generally and on the reasons for its limited success in particular.
3. Hirdman said that the Swedish Government regarded the Conference as an undoubted success in that it had shown the international community and its institutions to be capable of responding quickly and effectively to a major crisis. There were few such recent examples. The tone struck by most of the speakers had been effective and positive. This was equally true of those like Lord Carrington and Mr Mondale who had been most critical of the Vietnamese Government. Only the Chinese had struck an unnecessary polemic note. This was the sort of atmosphere which the Swedes had hoped for in stressing their wish that the Conference should concentrate on the humanitarian problem rather than on putting Vietnam in the pillory.
4. The Swedes had a bilateral discussion with the Vietnamese delegation on the evening of July 19 in which they had spoken bluntly i.e. more on the lines of Blix's article in "Expressen" our telno 96 of 16 July) than of his speech to the Conference (text enclosed with my letter of 26 July to Nash in WED - not to all). Blix had urged the Vietnamese to take account of worldwide concern and not to be drawn into an exchange of polemics with, particularly, the Chinese. The Swedes had been surprised at the moderate tone adopted by the Vietnamese in this private conversation. Though denying that they were able to control the outflow of "illegal emigrants" they conceded that the problem was putting an intolerable strain on the ASEAN countries and expressed their willingness to do all they could to mitigate the effects. Hirdman said that the Swedish delegation had concluded that whilst the overwhelming tide of world opinion had combined to bring Vietnam up short in their tracks the most potent of the forces working on them had been the unanimous condemnation by the ASEAN countries.
CONFIDENTIAL
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