2
any impression that Hong Kong was a sovereign state. The Dutch
were prepared to accept these changes, which were incorporated
in the final text. The ASA entered into force on 26 June 1987
after the Netherlands had completed its constitutional
formalities. The UK Government has since registered it with the
UN and with the International Civil Aviation Organization. It
will register other Hong Kong ASAS likewise. The Hong Kong/Switzerland, Hong Kong/Canada, Hong Kong/Brunei and Hong Kong/France ASA drafts were subject to similar exchanges with the
Chinese, who suggested one minor change to be made to the text
negotiated with the Swiss. To this, we and the Swiss agreed. The
ASA was signed on 26 January 1988, was published shortly
afterwards, and will come into force as
constitutional procedures have been completed.
4.
soon
as Swiss
The Chinese suggested no changes to the initialled texts of the Hong Kong/Canada, the Hong Kong/Brunei or Hong Kong/France
ASAS which were then signed. Hong Kong expects shortly to sign
ASAS with New Zealand and Malaysia, on the initialled texts of
which the Chinese also had no comments. The Chinese are currently
studying the texts of ASAS with five other countries: Brazil,
Sri Lanka, India, Germany and Italy. Signature of these will be arranged once we have their response.
5. We are at various stages of separating the UK ASAS with
Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and the
USA. (These negotiations are conducted on a confidential basis until successfully completed).
6.
Now the UK know the issues on which the Chinese are
sensitive, we hope to have few problems with them over the texts
of future Hong Kong ASAS. This has been borne out by their
response to the texts of Hong Kong ASAS with Canada, Brunei,
France, New Zealand and Malaysia. We will, however, wish to show