CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
tramphany
of Japanese decision-making.
The first meeting
in the series will be in Tokyo, probably in March, between HM Ambassador and the Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
3. The purpose of this minute is to draw the attention of departments to the openings for discussion with the Japanese offered by the new arrangements under (b) above. The respective Ambassadors will take the lead in preparing the informal agenda for each meeting. We should like to give Sir H Cortazzi some guidance about issues which FCO depart- ments would like to see covered, either at the first or some subsequent session. Certain subjects (eg East/West relations, the Middle East, the world economy, EC/Japan relations) have featured regularly in previous Anglo-Japanese consultations. These will, of course, continue to be the central issues. the bilateral political relationship is to be thickened up, our consultation will have to concentrate on the most pressing issues, even if they often appear to be well-trodden ground. But there would also be advantage in using the new series to lobby, consult or inform the Japanese on a wider range of issues:
4.
a)
discussion of geographical regions in which the Japanese have not hitherto played any prominent role (to take some random examples: Latin America; West Africa; the Caribbean; the South Pacific);
b) functional areas in which the Japanese have kept a low profile, or have taken a rather different line to our own (again at random: refugee issues; Law of the Sea; commodity agreements; wildlife con- ventions; UN economic and social affairs);
If
c) bilateral discussion of current multilateral problems
(eg East/West trade and technology exports; extra- territoriality; OECD export credits consensus; disarmament issues; Namibia);
d)
UK bilateral issues (eg nuclear exchanges with Japan; Japanese studies in UK universities; problems con- cerning UK Dependent Territories).
Needless to say this list is not exclusive, nor are all of the issues mentioned necessarily appropriate for discussions at this level. But it will be helpful if recipients would let FED know in due course of any subjects they would like to be considered for inclusion:
|| a)
in the March discussion in Tokyo;
|| b) in a subsequent session, either in London or in Tokyo.
10 February 1983
Marke Thicht
Mark Elliott
Far Eastern Dept
CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL