CONFIDENTIAL
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Background
3. The Private Secretary's minute of 24 June outlined the
Secretary of State's views on his visit to Manila (for the PMC)
and Hong Kong, and sought advice on the inclusion of Malaysia
or Singapore in the itinerary.
4. The PUS recommended that the Secretary of State go to
Malaysia. We have consulted Mr Slater, who confirms that a
visit to Kuala Lumpur would be welcome and useful, and has
identified specific objectives with which I concur. He
believes that Prime Minister Mahathir and Foreign Minister
Badawi will be available in Kuala Lumpur at the time. He also
recommends calls on other senior Malaysian Ministers. But he
warns that, because the Malaysian Cabinet meets on Wednesday
mornings and Malaysian Ministers will be unavailable then, the
Secretary of State will need to arrive during the
morning of Tuesday 28 July from Hong Kong. Since there is no
convenient scheduled flight, this would require a charter
flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur.
5.
HKD have brought to our attention (see separate HKD
submission on the Hong Kong programme) Mr Patten's wish for the
Secretary of State to attend EXCO in Hong Kong on the morning of 28 July and give a press conference thereafter. This would
inevitably delay departure from Hong Kong at least until
11.30 a.m. and cut into the Malaysia programme. With a 3 1/2
to 4 hour flight, the Secretary of State would not arrive in
central Kuala Lumpur until 3.30 pm local time at the earliest. To allow planning to go ahead for the visit to
Kuala Lumpur, we will need an early indication of the Secretary
of State's wishes on the balance to be struck between the Hong
Kong and Malaysia visits.
CONFIDENTIAL