yipes
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The following items were discussed later in the talks but are
recorded here for the sake of logic.
MALAYSIA
*
10. The Russians said that Rutskoi's visit had been the first
high-level Russian visit to Malaysia. They hoped that this
would be the start of good relations. Russia was negotiating to
sell a small number of planes and helicopters to Malaysia but
there was no reason for other countries to be worried by this.
Rutskoi had discussed the deal with the Malaysian Prime
Minister. Russia saw many possibilities for increasing trade
links with Malaysia.
11.
We said that the UK would of course be disappointed if the
Malaysians chose to buy from the Russians instead of from us.
It was also important that sales of sophisticated weaponery
systems to countries which had not had them before were
monitored for potentially destabilising effects. The
economically successful countries of South-East Asia had money
to spend and the end of the cold war meant that there was a
surplus of weapons for sale in the world. These factors might easily combine into an arms race amongst the Asian tigers.
THAILAND
12. The Princess of Thailand left Russia last week after a
visit at the invitation of the Russian Parliament. The Russians
hoped to receive the Thai Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister soon. Russia wanted to become more active in its
relations with Thailand.
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