20'd FULGUR”
RESTRICTED
PRIORITY
Ministers at the end of the month along the lines set out below.
3. Date of the Meetings. We accept that the Bank and Fund have
note little room for flexibility but hope that they can be prevailed
would inefor to upon to go some way to meeting Hong Kong ls request by moving the dates forward by one week. Hope Bank/fund.com agree to this.
We attach importance, in
4. Assurances on agreed contribution. terms of upholding Hong Kong's autonomy and avoiding contingent Liability for HMG, to an arrangement whereby Hong Kong signs the proposed MOU direct with Fund/Bank as suggested in Hong Kong's TUR. If the Fund/bank insist on more than this, we might consider the acceptability of meeting Fund/Bank concerns by transmitting the document containing Hong Kong's signature via the UK. Before doing so, however, we need to be satisfied that transmission of Hong Kong's assurances would not in itself constitute assumption of responsibility for any financial
We default. We are consulting Legal Advisers on the point. assume that the Chinese are not pressing to be associated with
this aspect.
Para 5 of UKDel TUR
Our view, which we are also
5. Assurances on visas and immunities. implies that the Chinese believe that visas, privileges and immunities are a matter for them. checking with Legal Advisers, is that this is an area in which Hong Kong has autonomy, both before and after the change of sovereignty, thereby reinforcing the case for the MOU to be signed by Hong Kong and for seeking to avoid a situation where either the UK and/or China signed.
6. Letters of invitation. We share Hong Kong's concern about the latest Chinese comment that there is no need for a letter from HKG. We will wish to stick firmly to the earlier understanding that there should be a total of three letters of
invitation: