4
CONFIDENTIAL
associations are in their infancy, and neither our leading
Allies nor regional powers like Australia have shown a willingness to take over formal obligations that would increase their own defence outgoings and liabilities and
risk a "neo-colonial" stigma.
3 The arguments in favour of disengagement on the whole reflect a British national interest. Those against disengagement reflect a wider Western interest or changing attitudes to
decolonisation. Thus it has become simultaneously more costly
for the UK to maintain its parental relationship with the
dependencies, and more difficult to relinquish responsibility in
a way that would be viewed as responsible in the UK, in the
dependencies and by our major allies, particularly the US. How should the circle be squared?
III
4
TERRITORIES UNDER CONSIDERATION IN THIS PAPER
Of the remaining 15 dependent territories there are several the future of which is constrained, or determined, by policy decisions already taken. Hong Kong, the Falklands (with their
dependencies) and Gibraltar are all sui generis, and especially
sensitive, cases and are excluded from further discussion in this
paper. So is the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and the
British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) where treaty obligations guarantee the US facilities until 2016 and in relation to which Ministers recently confirmed that there should be no major change
of status. These territories are not considered further in this
paper. Of course we must also avoid action in any of the
remaining nine dependent territories which could materially
prejudice our case on the sensitive or special ones listed above
(eg ceding to a foreign claim without regard for inhabitants
wishes). However the circumstances surrounding these nine
territories are sufficiently different to leave us reasonable
room for manoeuvre over their future without prejudicing the
position of the other six.
5 The focus of the rest of the paper will therefore be on the
nine dependencies in the Caribbean (Cayman Islands, British
Virgin Islands (BVI), Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), Montserrat
CONFIDENTIAL