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8. Within the European Community I agree with Mr Elliot that the FRG are probably the best choice, rather than the French, although the Germans have not shown much interest so far apart from calling once on the Department earlier this month. The French so far as I know have shown no interest. The only other EC Embassy to seek briefing here has been the Italians. Given the apparent lack of interest within the European Community countries I believe that on balance there is no particular advantage in our stirring things up by eg, suddenly organising a European Community briefing by Mr Donald, unless interest increased or there was some significant development on which we wanted to brief those countries.
9.
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In short, I think we should continue much as(present but perhaps bring the Canadians more closely into the picture. New Zealanders were briefed before Premier Zhao visited New Zealand but they have not shown any interest since and I think we can leave them aside for the moment.
10. Finally, we understand that Mr Weinberger, the US Defence Secretary, is expected to visit China in September, although dates have yet to be announced. It also looks as if the Chinese Foreign Minister will visit Washington in early October. These visits could come at an important stage in our talks with the Chinese and, while the Americans have their own problems with China, we should not lose sight of these two possible opportunities for asking the Americans to make certain points concerning Hong Kong.
28 July 1983
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نا الله
W Morris
Hong Kong Department
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