A
agree. A draft telegram of instructions to the Open Skies
to follow | Delegation in Ottawa is attached.
once. comments recenied
C
Background and Argument
3. The question of what territory outside national borders should be included in an Open Skies regime has not previously been
NATO
addressed. The 'Basic Elements paper declared that "all the
territories of the participating states in North America and Asia,
as well as in Europe, will be open to aerial observation". The
Western treaty text that was tabled at the Open Skies conference in Ottawa on 16 February envisages listing the territory to be included
for each state in an annex. The UK delegation at the Ottawa conference have now asked for instructions on the scope of UK territory (Ottawa telno 166).
Remitonal
is ar leown
arguable
4.
The original purpose of this formulation was
formulation was to ensure that the
whole of US and Canada and the area East of the Urals in the Soviet
Union would be captured in addition to what was seen as a natural focus on Europe. But the Basic Elements paper also envisages Open Skies as a complement to "other disarmament efforts" such as START
and Chemical Weapons (see sidelined passage). There is no common
understanding within NATO or with the Warsaw Pact over whether the
geographical scope is to be limited to the three continents
mentioned, but this interpretation seems a reasonable one. If literally interpreted, this formulation in respect of the UK might cover Hong Kong, Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Cyprus SBAs, and, possibly, our dependent territories in the Caribbean. The standard for scope of application has been set by a US declaration that it will not
exclude any territory over which it has sovereignty: Hawaii, Puerto
Rico and Guam would be covered. Other NATO Allies are likely to be more restrictive: Spain wishes to exclude Ceuta and Melilla in North
Africa; the Netherlands will exclude the Antilles in the Caribbean; Portugal has said she may exclude Macao, and the French propose to include St Pierre et Miquelon off Newfoundland but have not yet
pronounced on their territories in the Caribbean.
HDBADG