DONAL
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Mr Dhanabalan commented that the Americans had behaved very
badly at the UN Conference for fear of giving unnecessary
offence to China.
11.
Mr Nathan then said that it would be useful if as many
of ASEAN's friends as possible could privately make it known
to China that they could not go on indefinitely supporting
Democratic Kampuchea. Lord Carrington undertook to ask
HM Ambassador in Peking to take action on these lines.
Mr Dhanabalan asked what would be the European position if the
loose coalition did not come off. Lord Carrington acknowledged
that it would be difficult for Britain. Cambodian credentials
had been a non-issue at the UN in 1981 but the Vietnamese
could make it an issue again. Mr Donald mentioned the
affinity of views between Cheysson and Ghazali at the October
meeting of ASEAN and EC Foreign Ministers over contacts with
Heng Samrin and the possibility of detaching him from Vietnam.
Mr Dhanabalan said that Ghazali had since changed his view.
It was difficult to see how Heng Samrin could be detached from
the Vietnamese. He thought Pen Sovan had been removed because
he was moving in that direction. Mr Nathan, reverting to
the question of advice to be given to Son Sann, said that he
needed to be told that he must not be the first to back away
from the idea of a coalition. He must stick to it and avoid
giving the Khmer Rouge an excuse to pass the blame.
12.
Lord Carrington then raised the question of Hong Kong
explaining that the British lease expired in 1997, but that when
he had raised the question with Deng Xiaoping during his visit
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