ARGUMENT
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C
Participation
5. It is a normal requirement for Conferences held in association with the United Nations that all UN member states should be invited. Under these arrangements, the British Government would invite all UN member states with which it has diplomatic relations and the remainder would be invited either by the UN Secretary-General or via the Embassies of the protecting states. (The latter group would include Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Democratic Kampuchea, Iran, Libya and Syria). It is also proposed that HMG should invite participants from selected UN specialised agencies and inter-governmental organisations, British Dependent Territories and Crown Dependencies (who would attend as members of the UK delegation) and selected non-governmental organisations and professional bodies. A complete list of countries and organisations to be invited by HMG is annexed.
6. FID propose that we should invite Argentina via the Swiss Government rather than the UN Secretary-General. This reflects recent progress in bilateral relations, the agreement to re-establish consular relations and the fact that the re-establishment of diplomatic relations will be discussed in the next round of talks in February. We shall submit separately on the question of participation by other UN member states with whom we do not have diplomatic relations.
7. MCAD propose that we should not invite Panama. This would be consistent with our decision to end all high-level dealings with the Noriega regime except for certain specific limited purposes. Since Noriega has been indicted in the US on serious drug-trafficking charges, to invite one of his representatives would seem wholly inappropriate and MCAD consider it would cause outrage in the US. We have discussed this informally with UN officials. They regard the issue of invitations from HMG as entirely our business. However, we shall need to negotiate with them a suitable amendment to our draft letter of understanding which at present makes HMG responsible for issuing invitations to all UN member states with which we have diplomatic relations (which would include Panama).
8. The question of participation by South Africa raises difficult issues. South Africa was not invited to either the AIDS Conference in 1989 or this year's Ozone Layer Conference. The criteria used by Ministers in deciding
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