2.
DSR 11C
I have no doubt that there are plenty of other changes
that you will want to draw attention to I look forward in
particular to hearing what you (and your host government)
think about the Sino-Soviet and Vietnam triangular relation-
ship in the light of recent happenings in Moscow and elsewher
and about US interest in the region in the light of the
Weinberger visit. But I do hope that throughout our discus-
sions we will keep in mind our central theme the promotion
of British interests in the area which underlies the
list of questions which we telegraphed to you in advance in
order to help focus the debate.
You will also have seen the agenda we propose, in time
we hope to enable you to compose your ideas for the free-for
all session which will start when I stop and which is
designed to enable each of you to say in not more than
ten minutes how things look from the viewpoint of your post
and to flag any issues you particularly want to draw our
attention to in London. We circulated as well a paper on
Sino-Soviet competition for influence in this area by Bob
Longmire of Research Department. And you will have found wai
ing for you on arrival here a paper by Planning Staff
setting out our current policy assumptions and the backgrour
to them. I know that some of you have felt the need for suc
a statement of what we are about and that some would have
liked to have this in advance and to have had the opportunit
to comment on it. But we wanted to leave the field clear
for our key questions. You have the paper now; you are of
course free to comment now or after the meeting- we shall
/recast