ر
Dr M Reilly SEAD
FCO
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United Kingdom Mission
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A
Miss Sklo
PA
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HKD 243/11
Your reference
Our reference UN 243/518/1
Date 29 March 1988
Dear Mike,
UNHCR EAST THAILAND: OTTAWA ICG MEETING 7/8 APRIL
1. Please refer to our telegram number 208
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2. I enclose copies of the notes for the file recording the HLWG meeting on 25 March and the ICG local "contact group" meeting on 29 March, together with a copy of the US Mission letter of 4 March.
3. The two records give full details of UNHCR's appeal for diplomatic support in Bangkok and Hanoi. The US and Belgian Missions here say that their Embassies in Bangkok have approached the Thais in fairly strong terms whereas others, eg the Australians and Canadians, say that they have adopted more of a questioning and sympathetic approach in their discussions with the Thais. I have also seen details of our contacts with the Thais (Peter Bean's teleletter of 1 March and Bangkok telegram number 1 to Hong Kong). Present donor reaction here is much the same as that in Bangkok (paragraph 9 of the teleletter under reference), with the US pushing fairly hard for diplomatic support by HLWG governments.
14.
You will also wish to note the rumours here of a possible Thai- sponsored Asean seminar if the Ottawa ICG meeting does not produce lenough substantive results to satisfy the Thais (paragraph 10 of the ICG meeting record). My Thai colleague, in the margins of a recent UNHCR meeting, mentioned that this could be in the form of "another 1979 conference to solve the Indo-Chinese refugee problem", but he had no idea of possible dates, etc.
Yours sincerely, Delia
Miss D J Walker
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