yipes
RESTRICTED
been a decrease in the persecution of dissidents. Economic
reforms and increased openness to the outside world were likely to help the political reform process.
8. The Vietnamese Foreign Minister had been invited to visit
Russian at the end of April/beginning of May. The Russians were looking to this visit to restart their relations with Vietnam.
The Governmental Commission for Economic Co-operation was also due to meet later in the year. There had been some progress on the question of Vietnamese debt (which the Russians estimated to be worth $10 billion) although there was still a long way to go. The Russian government had reduced its military presence at Cam Ranh Bay to a very low level but had no plans to close the base
in the near future. The Russian parliament had, after close
scrutiny, agreed with this position, and the Russians believed
that other Asian states wanted to maintain a Russian presence in the region to maintain the "balance of power".
9. Sir J Coles said that British and Russian views on Vietnam
were virtually identical. The attitude of the US towards
Vietnam was also important. When he had been in Washington the
previous week, he had gained the impression that the Americans
were not comtemplating early resumption of relations. US
difficulties were understandable. But he rather hoped that
normalization would come about a good deal more quickly.
RESTRICTED