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M Elliott
Far Eastern Department
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PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT TO JAPAN, CHINA AND HONG KONG.
1. I am now in a position to reply to your minute of 19 February having received detailed timings from theRAF on all the options for flights outward and return to the Far East, as well as the timings of the flights within the area.
2. The flying time of particular concern to you, that of the journey between Tokyo and Peking, is four hours 50 minutes. Thus if the Prime Minister departed Tokyo at 1430 on 22 September, she would arrive at 1820 local time in Peking which would just about satisfy Tokyo's request but not Peking's. Clearly something will have to give.
3. We shall need also to consider the routes which the Prime Minister might take outward and return to the Far East. By far the quickest route to Tokyo is via Moscow with a flying time of 12 hours 50 minutes as opposed to 22 hours 10 minutes via Bahrain and Singapore, and 17 hours via Alaska. With the RAF currently charging nearly £2,500 per flying hour for a VC10 there is also clear advantage from a financial point of view in taking the shortest route, but in the present political climate it may be regarded as inadvisable for the Prime Minister to transit Moscow and overfly the Soviet Union. Perhaps EESD could comment on this. The other consideration is that I understand there is a bid from one of our Posts in the Gulf States for the Prime Minister to stop over in the area on her way to or from the Far East. We would be grateful if Middle East Department could advise on this proposal. Given the somewhat imprecise nature of the rest of the programme at this stage, all the other move- ments by air would seem to be feasible. Otherwise I have no comments on your draft, which I am returning.
25 February 1982
cc:
Private Secretary
Mr Donald
Mr Clift, HKGD
Mr Broomfield, EESD
Mr Miers,
MED
M M Hall
Conference and Visits Section Protocol and Conference Department
CONFIDENTIAL