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He asked me whether we had developed any view on new
I said that I had security arrangements in the Asian region. not looked into this subject yet but I had noted with interest an article in the "Herald Tribune" a couple of days ago about a forthcoming US sponsored conference in Manila to discuss "Cooperative Vigilance" which seemed to entail some
Mr Woods new American thinking about security arrangements. said it was the article in the "Herald Tribune" that had lead him to ask me the question. I said that I would welcome any more authoritative account of American thinking that he could offer.
6. Mr Woods asked me how our relationship with Argentina now was. I said that good progress had been made and this had been confirmed by the recent visit of the Argentine Foreign Minister. Mr Woods asked whether it was yet possible to see a solution to the problem of the Falkland Islands. I said that I could not see one. No one on the Falkland Islands wanted a change in the relationship with Britain; there any sign that Argentina would abandon its claim to sovereignty, though the Argentines were showing no disposition to push it at us, at least for the time being.
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nor was
Mr Woods said that in other European posts he had found it useful to have a periodic meeting to run through a check list of issues in the bilateral relationship. Would I see any merit in doing this here? I said that I should be glad to try this as an experiment. If either of us found that in
the event it was not of much practical benefit we could always abandon it but I will be in touch with him to propose a first meeting.
John Coles
JOHN COLES
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