CONFIDENTIAL
M Uden Esq
FED
FCO
cc (+ 1st minti) SPD
British Embassy
No 1 Ichiban-Cho Chiyoda-ku Tokyo
Telex J22755 (A/B PRODROME) Telephone 265-5511
HKK0405
RECEIVED IN NESISTHY
A
Sov D SEAD
DelD
NED MED
(+ 2nd)
(lse)
.. 1983
ROMETRY
to Care Fon Mer Centrip
выр
Hulf Chinese Foreign Policy
Your reference
Our reference
Date 21 October 1983
287
(485)
Dear Martin
OFFICIAL CONSULTATIONS WITH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
I.
The Japanese held official level consultations with the Australians and New Zealanders last week, the former on the 11th and 12th and the latter on the 13th and 14th. The Australians were represented by Mr Feakes, Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and the New Zealanders by Ir Norrish, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The Japanese team was led on both occasions by Nakajima, the deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs.
2.
These two sessions of talks have always been in the same week. It is a practice the Japanese are keen to preserve, according to the Aus- tralians because it allows them to use the same set of briefs for both meetings! In any event, one result of the arrangement is that the Aus- tralian and New Zealand Embassies meet afterwards to compare notes and check whether the Japanese have said the same to each of them.
By way of a briefing, I was invited along to the note comparing session.
3.
It is,
The attached minute represents the gist of what emerged. I am afraid, rather long. Its main points are that the Japanese were confident about future stability in the ROK and China, cautious and con- cerned about the Philippines, and surprisingly pessimistic about Indon- esia's economic future. They laid great stress on the strategic import- ance of Burma. They were studiously relaxed about the prospects for a significant Sino-Soviet rapprochement and about the implications for Japan of US military technology transfers to China. They showed their usual keen interest in INF but complained that they were a lone voice in Asia on the subject and deserved greater backing from like-minded countries such as Australia. They demonstrated, in Australian eyes, a remarkable ignorance on the South Pacific island states, coupled with exaggerated fears of Soviet infiltration in the region.
4.
The Australians made a point of asking for Japanese yiews on Hong Kong. I have recorded the Japanese reaction on this point separately, in case it requires a different distribution.
cc Chanceries:
Canberra
Wellington
Peking
ASEAN posts Washington Assistant Po. Hong Kong ( CONFIDENTIAL
tical Adviser,
Kong minute only)
Yours iver
N K Darroch
First Secretary