D Tonkin Esą CMG
!
4 October 1982
4
There remains the question as to whether we should take up the Vietnamese invitation to bilateral consultations in advance of the RAN Conference. The CAA do not themselves wish to send anyone out to Vietnam for such a purpose, so unless representatives of the Civil Aviation Department in Hong Kong wish to take advantage of the approach which has been made to you e.g. to visit Vietnam in order to satisfy themselves that the Vietnamese authorities would now be competent to administer the Ho Chi Minh FIR - and to report their conclusions to CAA- I suggest that you should reply saying that you have taken note of their proposal, that you have informed the UK authorities in London and Hong Kong, and that you understand there will be opportunities to pursue the matter both bilaterally and multilaterally at the ICAO Regional Air Navigation Conference due to take place in Singapore in January 1983.
5 I am copying this letter to Robin McLaren and Brian Keep in Hong Kong (Political Adviser and DCA respectively), to Jack Groves (DOSO, CAA), to Gray (MAED, FCO) and Seager (SEAD, FCO) and to Chanceries at Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I look to Hong Kong for confirmation of the line proposed in paragraph 4.
H MG Stevens
Yours sievely
Кирове