CONFIDENTIAL
advance of a settlement would weaken the negotiating
position of Belize, and the timing of a decision is therefore important.
10. As to our other out of area activities, our joint
preoccupation is to strike a sensible balance between being able to fulfil our commitments and doing so in the
most cost effective way. I am conscious of the heavy
pressures on the defence budget in the current PES period and would be ready for my officials to examine with yours the scope for reductions in for example Cyprus and,
especially, Gibraltar. There is also the longer term
future of the Gurkhas, which as you know has a heavy political as well as a military resonance, and the need
to work out the implications for our out of area deployments of the reductions planned for the Royal Navy.
In all of these areas we will need to ensure that there
is full and timely consultation between our two
Departments, so that we are not confronted at a late
stage by budget-driven decisions which run up against political imperatives in the opposite direction.
11. I should be glad to discuss these issues with you soon. I am copying this minute to the Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary and to Sir Robin Butler.
TH.
Foreign and Commonwealth office
15 July 1991
CONFIDENTIAL
(DOUGLAS HURD)