RESTRICTED
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
KUALA LUMPUR
DH Colvin Esq
SEAD
FCO
HKD 243/8
28 September 1988
460026
861
Dean David.
HEADS OF MISSION CONFERENCE AT SINGAPORE: AGENDA
729
1. Thank you for your letter of 1 September in which you asked for comments on your ideas and suggestions. I have seen Michael Pike's letter of 14 September, and agree generally with what he says.
2.
I agree that we should abandon country by country presentations and frame our discussions around the four areas which you mentioned. First, however, I think it would be right to review briefly the recommendations of the 1985 Conference. So far as I can tell most of those that required specific action in the short term have either been implemented or overtaken by events, eg in the Philippines. But you may feel, in consultation with
the DTI and ODA, that some should be re-emphasised.
3.
Turning to the four points for discussion which you propose, I hope that we can concentrate largely on defining UK Interests and Objectives in South East Asia over the next decade and making recommendations for action. General discussion of issues, like Cambodia, which are really for you and the posts directly concerned to deal with, is not likely to be very profitable. Nor would I like to see the Conference spending too much time on political and economic prospects for the region into the 1990s (item A in your Annex B). An hour should suffice for a gaze into that particular crystal ball.
4. Over the next few weeks I shall consult Michael Pike and others in the region about draft recommendations and proposals for follow up action. I hope we can make those the nub of the Conference. We shall need to consider, inter alia, the role of the Five Power Defence Arrangement and Britain's part in it, since I imagine that we shall be making recommendations on that subject. Ought we not to be joined by somebody from Canberra?
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