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British Embassy Bangkok
Ms S Tiffin
SEAD
FCO
LONDON
Your reference
Our referance
Date 13 April 1989
Dear My Tippin
Mr Dynaldson. Your pleasure I think ---
ST 2014
REPORT OF THE 45TH SESSION OF ESCAP
Mr. Wells
I have the attachments
c) a d).
IND
W
Summary
1.
This year's ESCAP Session was freer from controversy than has been the case for some years. The comparatively smooth progress of the proceedings only served to bring out more clearly the anodyne and general nature of the discussions. There now appears to be scope for the United Kingdom to resurrect at next year's session the idea of reducing the frequency (or scale) of future Commission sessions to conserve resources.
Political Issues
2.
The delegations of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), Vietnam and the USSR followed by now well-established patterns with regard to the DK's participation in the proceedings. The following two points, however, were new this year:
3.
a) the USSR, in a possibly calculated move, failed to attend the Credentials Committee Meeting, thus leaving Vietnam unsupported in their rejection of the DK credentials
b) the DK delegation took a more active part in Committee discussions, expressing in particular the hope that ESCAP could assist their tourism promotion efforts after the resolution of the current conflict. This presumably reflects increasing optimism that a solution can be achieved within the next two years.
There were very few attempts by the socialist countries to refer to the propaganda themes which they used to emphasise at ESCAP, namely regional military security (disarmament
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