PS
HKB 182 12
FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE:
CONFIDENTIAL
Suretagne State
FROM: R J T McLaren
DATE:
cc:
6 February 1991
&
PS/Lord Caithness Mr Burns
Mr Paul, HKD
127
HONG KONG:
KONG
AIRPORT PROJECT
Yes
1. Mr Paul's submission of 5 February covered a draft memorandum for the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. You asked for my advice on the inclusion or otherwise of the final section of the draft on British commercial interests.
2.
As Mr Paul indicates, the arguments are finely balanced but my own inclination, like that of the Hong Kong Government, is to omit paragraphs 13 and 14. The key task now is to persuade the Chinese Government to give their blessing to the airport project. A further round of expert talks will take place in the second half of this month, followed early in March by a visit to Hong Kong by the new Director of the State Council Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office. To include the section on British commercial interests which does not really belong with the rest of the paper, would be likely to fuel Chinese suspicions about British motives at a time when we are seeking to dispel them.
3. We certainly do not want to give the impression that the Foreign Office has no interest in helping British firms to win airport contracts. A way forward might be for PRU to say when forwarding the final version of the memorandum that it does not deal with the British commercial interest in the airport project because that is largely a matter for the DTI. But the FCO are fully alive to the opportunities for British firms which the project presents. There would be a risk that the FAC would then call for a separate paper on the commercial aspects, or send in a list of questions. But that risk is there anyway, whether or not we include the section.
R JT MCLAREN
RM1ACA
CONFIDENTIAL
129