25 March 1993
BY FAX
Mr D S Evans
UK Representative, ICAO
Montreal.
pa
186/1
HKCC 186/1
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
RECEIVED IN RECISTRY
1 APR 1993
22
Dear Mr Evans,
DESK OFFICER
REGIST
INDEX
PA
Action Tak
REVIVAL OF KAL-007 COMPENSATION CLAIMS
19
1.
Simon Lovett has shown me your letter to him of 22 March in reply to my letter of 10 March to your office (which I cleared with him in draft).
16.
The phrase about
2. I am sorry for any misunderstanding. "strengthening our position when negotiating with the Russians" which I quoted in my letter was in fact a direct quote from the Hong Kong letter reporting the views of the next-of-kin. I included it to show that the next-of-kin seemed to have only a sketchy idea of the role of the ICAO in the KAL-007 affair - I was not implying that this was anything to do with our policy, present or future. Apologies: I should have made this clearer.
3.
I am replying to Hong Kong along the lines suggested in my letter, explaining that the ICAO has a neutral investigative role, and that talks about compensation are taking place on a multilateral basis outside the ICAO; and reassuring Hong Kong that the UK has a Permanent Representative at ICAO and is thus kept fully informed of all technical developments. You are right to assume there is no suggestion of trying to gain leverage over the Russians, or of you adopting a higher profile on the issue which, as you point out in your para 4, would lead to many complications, quite apart from being a policy of very doubtful utility.
4. I will also tell Hong Kong that investigations are continuing and that a report will be submitted to the Council of the ICAO in due course. I do not think there is anything to be gained from being more forthcoming than that. We too are being very careful to dampen expectations of any progress, whether in the ICAO investigation or in the compensation
talks.
(reply at (8)